Try it on paper first. A hint, the key idea and the worked solution are here when you need them.
A transport office studies how long passengers waited for a bus at one stop on a busy morning. It grouped the waiting times, in minutes, as shown below. The office wants the three averages, because the timetable team prefers the mean while the passengers' group quotes the median and the mode. A statistician then says that for data of this kind, which is slightly skewed, the mode should be close to .
| Waiting time (minutes) | Passengers |
|---|---|
| 10-20 | 6 |
| 20-30 | 11 |
| 30-40 | 22 |
| 40-50 | 18 |
| 50-60 | 9 |
| 60-70 | 4 |
Find the mean, the median and the mode of the waiting time. Then find the value of , and say how close it is to the mode.
Have you tried it?
Work it out on paper first. It is fine to get stuck or make a mistake: that is how we learn. When you are ready, go through the solution one step at a time, and check each step against your own.
Step 1. The mean. . So minutes.
Step 2. The median. The running totals are , and is first reached in the class to . Then minutes.
Step 3. The mode. The largest frequency is , in the class to . Then minutes.
Step 4. The rule of thumb. minutes.
Answer: mean , median and mode minutes. The rule of thumb gives minutes, which is only about minutes from the mode.
Check. The mean is the largest of the three and the mode the smallest, as for data with a longer tail on the right.
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Mean: (class marks for grouped data). Median: the middle value, or for grouped data. Mode: the most common value, or .