STATISTICS
Higher Concepts of Mathematics
Example:
Find the mean of 67, 88, 91, 83, 79, 81, 69, and 74.
Solution:
x
1
n
n
i 1
xi
The sum of the scores is 632 and n = 8, therefore
x
632
8
x
79
In many cases involving statistical analysis, literally hundreds or thousands of data points are
involved. In such large groups of data, the frequency distribution can be plotted and the
calculation of the mean can be simplified by multiplying each data point by its frequency
distribution, rather than by summing each value. This is especially true when the number of
discrete values is small, but the number of data points is large.
Therefore, in cases where there is a recurring number of data points, like taking the mean of a
set of temperature readings, it is easier to multiply each reading by its frequency of occurrence
(frequency of distribution), then adding each of the multiple terms to find the mean. This is one
application using the frequency distribution values of a given set of data.
Example:
Given the following temperature readings,
573, 573, 574, 574, 574, 574, 575, 575, 575, 575, 575, 576, 576, 576, 578
Solution:
Determine the frequency of each reading.
MA-05
Page 4
Rev. 0
