Practical Applications of Mean, Median, and Mode in Statistics: Real-World Examples

Practical Applications - mean, median, mode

It is important to make decisions about what measure to use for specific situations.

Just because you can use mean, median, and mode in the real world, it does not mean that these measures apply to all situations.

Understand these Scenarios

Find the measure that best suits the following scenarios:

Scenario 1

A physical trainer expresses an interest to form a basketball team. The principal suggests to take the average height of students in a class, and then select the best team based on that.

Which central tendency measure would you recommend to form the best team?

Options:

• Mean
• Median
• Mode

Answer:

Mean

Scenario 2

Have you ever noticed that when you type a keyword in YouTube, the videos with the maximum number of views are ranked first.

Which central tendency measure does YouTube use to identify the videos with maximum number of views?

Options:

1. Mean
2. Median
3. Mode

Answer:

Mode

Scenario 3

In a class of 5 students, 4 students get pocket money ranging between Rs. 100 - 150, and 1 student gets pocket money of Rs. 2000.

Which central tendency measure would you suggest to find the average pocket money?

Options:

1. Mean
2. Median
3. Mode

Answer:

Median

Explanation: Outlier of Rs. 2000 affects the mean. Therefore, Median is used.