Welcome

1. Welcome To A Session On Measures of Central Tendency

2. Your Text Book Bussiness Statistics By S.P.Gupta &M. P. Gupta (Fourteenth Enlarged edition) Chapter 4

3. What is meant by a measure of central tendency? An average is frequently referred to as a measure of central tendency or central value. This is a single value which is considered the most representative or typical value for a given set of data. It is the value around which data in the set tend to cluster. For example:The average starting salary for social workers is TK.15,000 per Year and it gives some idea of how much variety or heterogeneity there is in the distribution )

4. What are the objectives of averaging? The following are two main objectives of the study of average: • To get one single value that describes the characteristics of the entire data. Measures of central value, by condensing the mass of data in one single value, enable us to get an idea of the entire data. Thus one value can represent thousands, lakhs and even millions of values. • For example: It is impossible to remember the individual incomes of millions of earning people of Bangladesh and even if one could do it there is hardly any use. But if the average income is obtained, we get one single value that represents the entire population. Such a figure would throw light on the standard of living of an average Bangladeshi.

5. What are objectives of averaging? • To facilitate comparison. Measures of central value, by reducing the mass of data in one single figure, enable comparisons to be made. Comparison can be made either at a point of time or over a period of time. • For example: The figure of average sales for December may be compared with the sales figures of previous months or with the sales figure of another competitive firm.

6. What should be the properties of a good average? Since an average is a single value representing a group of values, it is desirable that such a value satisfies the following properties: • It should be easy to understand: Since statistical methods are designed to simplify complexity, it is desirable that an average be such that can be readily understood, its use is bound to be very limited. • It should be simple to compute: Not only an average should be easy to understand but it also should be simple to compute so that it can be used widely.

7. What should be the properties of a good average? • It should be based on all the observations: The average should depend upon each and every observation so that if any of the observation is dropped average itself is altered. • It should be rigidly defined: An average should be properly defined so that it has one and only one interpretation. It should preferably be defined by an algebraic formula so that if different people compute the average from the same figures they all get the same answer (Barring arithmetical mistakes).

8. What should be the properties of a good average? • It should be capable of further algebraic treatment: We should prefer to have an average that could be used for further statistical computations. • For example: If we are given separately the figures of average income and number of employees of two or more companies we should be able to compute the combined average.

9. What should be the properties of a good average? • It should have sampling stability: We should prefer to get a value which has what the statisticians call ‘Sampling stability’. This means that if we pick 10 different groups of college students, and compute the average of each group, we should expect to get approximately the same values. • It should not be unduly affected by the presence of extreme values: Although each and every observation should influence the value of the average, none of the observations should influence it unduly. If one or two very small or very large observations unduly affect the average, i.e., either increase its value or reduce its value, the average cannot be really typical of the entire set of data. In other words, extremes may distort the average and reduce its usefulness.

10. What are various measures of central tendency ? The following are the measures of central tendency which are generally used in Business: • Mean • Arithmetic mean • Geometric mean • Harmonic mean • Median • Mode

11. How would you select a specific measure of central tendency? Selection of a measure of central tendency largely depends on the nature of data. Continued…….

12. Nature of data Figure:1 Measure of Central tendency? Nominal? Yes Yes Mode No Ordinal? Yes Mode No No Distribution Skewed? Yes No Mean

13. What are various types of averages or means? • Mean • Arithmetic mean • Geometric mean • Harmonic mean Continued…….

14. What is arithmetic mean? The arithmetic mean, often simply referred to as mean, is the total of the values of a set of observations divided by their total number of observations.

15. What are the methods of computing arithmetic mean? For ungrouped data, arithmetic mean may be computed by applying any of the following methods: • Direct method • Short-cut method

16. What is direct method? Thus, if represent the values of N items or observations, the arithmetic mean denoted by is defined as:

17. Example: The monthly income (in Tk) of 10 employees working in a firm is as follows: • 4493 4502 4446 4475 4492 4572 4516 4468 4489 • Find the average monthly income. Applying the formula we get: 4487+4493+4502+4446+4475+4492+4572+4516+4468+4489 = 44.949 Hence the average monthly income is Tk.4494.

18. What is short cut method? A short cut is one in which the arithmetic mean is calculated by taking deviations from any arbitrary point . The formula for computing mean by short cut method is as follows: Where , d = (X – A ) and A = Arbitrary point (or assumed mean) It should be noted that any value can be taken as arbitrary point and the answer would be the same as obtained by the direct method.

19. Example: 2 Calculation of average monthly income by the short–cut method from the following data. In this case 4460 is taken as the arbitrary point. Calculation of average income X (TK) (X - 4460) (TK) 4487 4493 4502 4446 4475 4492 4572 4516 4468 4489 +27 +33 +42 -14 +15 +32 +112 +56 +8 +29 Assumed mean = Tk.4460  = +340

20. Applying the formula we get: One may find that short-cut method takes more time as compared to direct method. However, this is true only for ungrouped data. In case of grouped data, considerable saving in time is possible by adopting the short-cut method.

21. What are the methods of estimating average from grouped data? • Direct method • Short-cut method Continued…..

22. Example 3 Compute the average from the following data by direct method.

23. Direct Method The formula for estimating average from grouped data by direct method is: X = mid-point of various classes f= the frequency of each class N= the total frequency Where, Continued…….

24. Calculate the average profits for all the companies. Continued…….

25. Thus, the average profit is Tk. 605.71 lakhs.

26. Short-cut Method When short-cut method is used, the following formula is applied. Where, A = Arbitrary point (assumed mean) and i = size of the equal class interval

27. Example: N = 90 Continued…….

28. Here, assumed mean, A = 59.5 class-interval, i =10

29. What are the mathematical properties of arithmetic mean? The important mathematical properties of arithmetic mean are: 1.The algebraic sum of the deviations of all the observations from arithmetic mean is always zero, i.e., This shall be clear from the following example: Continued……

30. 2. The sum of the squared deviations of all the observations from arithmetic mean is minimum, that is, less than the squared deviations of all the observations from any other value than the mean. The following example would clarify the point: Continued……

31. 3.If we have the arithmetic mean and number of observations of two or more than two related groups, we can compute combined average of these groups by applying the following formula: Continued……

32. Where, = Combined mean of the two groups. = Arithmetic mean of the first group. = Arithmetic mean of the second group. = Number of observations in the first group. = Number of observations in the second group. Continued………

33. Example: There are two branches of a company employing 100 and 80 employees respectively. If arithmetic means of the monthly salaries paid by two branches are Tk. 4570 and Tk. 6750 respectively, find the arithmethtic mean of the salaries of the employees of the company as a whole. Applying the following formula, we get:

34. What are the merits of arithmetic mean? • Merits: • It possesses first six out of seven characteristics of a good average. • The arithmetic mean is the most popular average in practice. • It is a large number of characteristics. ??? Continued……

35. What are the limitations of arithmetic mean? • Limitations: • Arithmetic mean is unduly affected by the presence of extreme values. • In opened frequency distribution, it is difficult to compute mean without making assumption regarding the size of the class-interval of the open-end classes. • The arithmetic mean is usually neither the most commonly occurring value nor the middle value in a distribution. • In extremely asymmetrical distribution, it is not a good measure of central tendency.

36. What is meant by weighted arithmetic mean? A weighted average is an average estimated with due weight or importance given to all the observations. The terms ‘weight’ stands for the relative importance of the different observations. Problem: An important problem that arises while using weighed mean is selection of weights. Weights may be either actual or arbitrary, i.e., estimated. Uses: Weighted mean is specially useful in problems relating to the construction of index numbers and standardized birth and death rates. Continued….

37. The formula for computing weighted arithmetic mean is given below: where, =The weighted arithmetic mean X = The variable. W = Weights attached to the variable X.

38. Example: A contractor employs three types of workers – male, female and children. To male worker he pays Tk. 100 per day, to a female worker Tk. 75 per day and to a child worker Tk. 35 per day. What is the average wage per day paid by the contractor? Solution: The simple average wage is not arithmetic mean, i.e., If we assume that the number of male, female and child workers is the same, this answer would be correct. For example, if we take 10 workers in each case then the average wage would be Continued….

39. Let us assume that the number of male, female and child workers employed are 20, 15 and 5, respectively. The average wage would be the weighted mean calculated as follows: Continued…..

40. Example: Hence the average wage per day paid by the contractor is Tk. 82.50.

41. What is meant by geometric mean? The geometric mean (GM) is defined as Nth root of the product of N observations of a given data. If there are two observations, we take the square toot; if there are three observations, the cube root; and so on, The formula is: where, X1, X2, X3….., XN refer to the various observations of the data.

42. How is geometric mean computed? To simplify calculations logarithms are used.

43. How is geometric mean calculated? In ungrouped data, geometric mean is calculated with the help of the following formula: In grouped data, firstmidpoints are found out and then the following formula is used for calculating geometric mean : Where X = midpoint

44. What are the applications of geometric mean? • Geometric mean is specially useful in the following cases: • The geometric mean is used to find the average per cent increase in sales, production, population or other economic or business data. For example, from 2002 to 2004 prices increased by 5%, 10% and 18% respectively. The average annual increase is 11% as given by the arithmetic average but it is 10.9% as obtained by the geometric mean. • This average is also useful in measuring the growth of population, because population increases in geometric progression. Continued…….

45. Geometric mean is theoretically considered to be the best average in the construction of index number. It makes index numbers satisfy the time reversal test and gives equal weights to equal ratio of change. • It is an average which is most suitable when large weights have to be given to small values of observations and small weights to large values of observations, situations which we usually come across in social and economic fields.

46. What are the merits of geometric mean? • Merits • Geometric mean is highly useful in averaging ratios and percentages and in determining rates of increase and decrease. • It is also capable of algebraic manipulation. • For example, if the geometric mean of two or more series and their numbers of observations are known, a combined geometric mean can easily be calculated. Continued…….

47. What are the limitations of geometric mean? • Limitations • Compared to arithmetic mean, this average is more difficult to compute and interpret. • Geometric mean cannot be computed when there are both negative and positive values in a series or more observations are having zero value.

48. What is meant by harmonic mean? The harmonic mean is based on the reciprocal of the numbers averaged. It is defined as the reciprocal of the arithmetic mean of the reciprocal of the individual observation. Continued…….

49. How is harmonic mean computed? The formula for estimating harmonic mean is as follows: Where number of observations is large, the computation of harmonic mean in the above manner becomes tedious. Continued…….

50. To simplify calculations, we obtain reciprocals of the various observations and apply the following formulae: For ungrouped data,= For grouped data, = Continued…….