|Upcoming GDB||Dated: May 07, 15|
Graded Discussion Board (GDB) for STA301 will be opened on May 14, 2015 and will remain open till May 15, 2015. The topic of this GDB is,
“Why an average computed from a frequency distribution is not exactly the same as computed from the raw data? Give the reason”.
Your comments should NOT exceed from 250 words.
NOTE: Your comments MUST be posted with in due date and it will NEVER accept through e-mail.
+ http://bit.ly/vucodes (Link for Assignments, GDBs & Online Quizzes Solution)
+ http://bit.ly/papersvu (Link for Past Papers, Solved MCQs, Short Notes & More)+ Click Here to Search (Looking For something at vustudents.ning.com?) + Click Here To Join (Our facebook study Group)
Let's start discussion.
i am new student here please guide me ye GDB kia hoti ha aur isy kese bnaya jata ha please share your helpfull ideas... thanks
Tariq bro plz share helpful material,.
Measures of Central Tendency
A measure of central tendency is a single value that attempts to describe a set of data by identifying the central position within that set of data. As such, measures of central tendency are sometimes called measures of central location. They are also classed as summary statistics. The mean (often called the average) is most likely the measure of central tendency that you are most familiar with, but there are others, such as the median and the mode.
The mean, median and mode are all valid measures of central tendency, but under different conditions, some measures of central tendency become more appropriate to use than others. In the following sections, we will look at the mean, mode and median, and learn how to calculate them and under what conditions they are most appropriate to be used.
The mean (or average) is the most popular and well known measure of central tendency. It can be used with both discrete and continuous data, although its use is most often with continuous data (see our Types of Variable guide for data types). The mean is equal to the sum of all the values in the data set divided by the number of values in the data set. So, if we have n values in a data set and they have values x1, x2, ..., xn, the sample mean, usually denoted by (pronounced x bar), is:
This formula is usually written in a slightly different manner using the Greek capitol letter, , pronounced "sigma", which means "sum of...":
You may have noticed that the above formula refers to the sample mean. So, why have we called it a sample mean? This is because, in statistics, samples and populations have very different meanings and these differences are very important, even if, in the case of the mean, they are calculated in the same way. To acknowledge that we are calculating the population mean and not the sample mean, we use the Greek lower case letter "mu", denoted as µ:
The mean is essentially a model of your data set. It is the value that is most common. You will notice, however, that the mean is not often one of the actual values that you have observed in your data set. However, one of its important properties is that it minimises error in the prediction of any one value in your data set. That is, it is the value that produces the lowest amount of error from all other values in the data set.
An important property of the mean is that it includes every value in your data set as part of the calculation. In addition, the mean is the only measure of central tendency where the sum of the deviations of each value from the mean is always zero.
When not to use the mean
The mean has one main disadvantage: it is particularly susceptible to the influence of outliers. These are values that are unusual compared to the rest of the data set by being especially small or large in numerical value. For example, consider the wages of staff at a factory below:
Staff 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Salary 15k 18k 16k 14k 15k 15k 12k 17k 90k 95k
The mean salary for these ten staff is $30.7k. However, inspecting the raw data suggests that this mean value might not be the best way to accurately reflect the typical salary of a worker, as most workers have salaries in the $12k to 18k range. The mean is being skewed by the two large salaries. Therefore, in this situation, we would like to have a better measure of central tendency. As we will find out later, taking the median would be a better measure of central tendency in this situation.
Another time when we usually prefer the median over the mean (or mode) is when our data is skewed (i.e., the frequency distribution for our data is skewed). If we consider the normal distribution - as this is the most frequently assessed in statistics - when the data is perfectly normal, the mean, median and mode are identical. Moreover, they all represent the most typical value in the data set. However, as the data becomes skewed the mean loses its ability to provide the best central location for the data because the skewed data is dragging it away from the typical value. However, the median best retains this position and is not as strongly influenced by the skewed values. This is explained in more detail in the skewed distribution section later in this guide.
All Dear! fellows are requested to share IDEA, related this GDB. Thanks
plz share ur helpfull ideas am waitng
hmmm prishan about GDB mil jaye gii fiker nt
Everyone plz must read the question first then give the answer.Question iz tht Why an average computed from a frequency distribution is not exactly the same as computed from the raw data? Give the reason????