Think about the following ques

(a)

Question:

How many siblings do you have?

3

(b)

Question:

Which do you think is larger, the mean number of siblings ofpeople in this class, or the median number of siblings? Why do youthink so?

The mean number of siblings of people in this class, will belarger than the the median number of siblings because thedistribution of number of siblings of people in this class is rightskewed, because most of the people in this class,are having smallernumber of siblings but some people in this class,are having largernumber of siblings.

(c)

Question:

How would you verify your answer to #2? What questions would youneed to ask?

Our answer to #2 is verified by collecting data on siblings ofpeople in this class from each student. The question to be askedis:”How many siblings do you have?”

(d)

Question:

Why would the mean and median differ?

The mean and median differ due to the variation in thedistribution: negatively skewed, symmetrical or positivelyskewed.

(e)

Question:

Under what circumstances would the mean be bigger? Give aspecific instance in this case.

The mean would be bigger than the median if the distribution ispositively skewed. Specific instance is the distribution of income.Most people have low incomes but some people are very rich.

(f)

Question:

Under what circumstances would the median be bigger? Again givea specific instance in this case.

The median would be bigger than the mean if the distribution isnegatively skewed. Specific instance is the distribution of marksobtained by students in an easy examination. Most students havehigh marks but some students will have low marks.