Practice Problems: Measures of Central Tendency - Answer

A group committed to quality television has been concerned about a new talk show. For two weeks, they decide to count the number of words that must be "bleeped" as too obscene for television and the number of physical altercations. They hope that after recording this data that they will be able to argue that the show is inappropriate for television particularly during the day. The data for number of words censored is provided below.

DataArray
342 349
267 342
321 321
157 289
33 267
254 254
166 166
132 157
289 132
349 33


Mean

Mean = X / N = 2310 / 10 = 231.0


Median

33132157166254267 289321342349

The median is 260.5. The two middle scores are 254 and 267. By adding these two numbers together and dividing by 2, I find the median = 260.5. Half of the scores fall above this number and half fall below.


Mode

This data set has no mode; no number occurs more than once.


What does this information tell you about the talk show?

All things considered, probably not the best show for your kids to watch (particularly if they can lip read). The mean number of "bleeped" words per show is 231 words. Half of the shows have to censor over approximately 260 words and half censor less. There is no mode - each show appears to be unique as to the number of words "bleeped".


Is this data skewed?

The show with only 33 words censored has caused a negative skew and distorted the mean downwards a bit.

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