This portion of the web page will teach you about the central tendencies of measure. These are:
mean,
median,
and mode.
A central tendency of measure is a number used to represent a particular set of data.
The mean is simply the average of the data. Mathematically, this means that we will add up the data that we want to be represented and divide that amount by the number of pieces of data that we used.
The median is the middle piece of data but you have to be sure to list your numbers in order from low to high.
The mode is the number that occurs most often in a list.
Depending on how a person want to represent their data, one of these methods might be used over another.
If you would like to see how this works, the first thing you have to do is click on the following button:
HYPERLINK http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/GG/HCV/puuoo-episodes.html http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/GG/HCV/puuoo-episodes.html
This will give you data to work with. On this page is a look at Kilavea volcano in Hawaii. Over the course of the last 16 years it has has 55 volcanic eruptions. The data recorded on this page includes:
The duration of the eruption;
The area covered by the eruption;
The volume of the eruption;
And the rate at which the lava spewed out of the volcano.
From that page get yourself some data and record it here. Then click on either the mean, median or mode buttons to find the measures of central tendency. Which one do you feel best represents the data?
Record data here
Mean Median Mode