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Statistics for Decision- Making in Business - Maricopa Community ...

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account <strong>for</strong> this discrepancy, mathematicians usually write where the <strong>in</strong>dex should start below<br />

sigma and the maximum value above the sigma. For example, if there are 3 values <strong>in</strong> the dataset,<br />

we would write the mean as:<br />

As you can see, the sigma notation can quickly become convoluted, and so we typically just<br />

write to <strong>in</strong>dicate the sum of all -values.<br />

Median<br />

The median value of a dataset is the value that represents the physical center of the data set. To<br />

locate the median:<br />

Organize the data values from smallest to largest. Then,<br />

If there is an odd number of values <strong>in</strong> the data set, the center value can be located by count<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong><br />

positions from the smallest value, <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g the smallest value. Alternatively, one can count <strong>in</strong> an<br />

equal number of values from the left and right endpo<strong>in</strong>ts to locate the center value.<br />

If there is an even number of values <strong>in</strong> the data set, average the two middle-most values together.<br />

The locations of the two middle-most values are:<br />

Positions from the smallest value, <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g the smallest value. Once aga<strong>in</strong>, these values can be<br />

found by count<strong>in</strong>g from the left and the right endpo<strong>in</strong>ts of the dataset.<br />

Example 1: F<strong>in</strong>d the mean and median salaries <strong>for</strong> the company represented by the follow<strong>in</strong>g<br />

dataset (<strong>in</strong> thousands). Expla<strong>in</strong> which measure better reflects the overall company<br />

demographic.<br />

SOLUTION: We first f<strong>in</strong>d the mean:<br />

This means that, on average, employees earn $148,200 per year.<br />

<strong>Statistics</strong> <strong>for</strong> <strong>Decision</strong>-<strong>Mak<strong>in</strong>g</strong> <strong>in</strong> Bus<strong>in</strong>ess © Milos Podmanik Page 57

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