Question

The two data sets show random samples of the costs, in dollars, of cars purchased at two dealerships yesterday.
Dealership 1: 25,000,42,000,37,000,45,000,120,000
Dealership 2: 28,000, 95,000,18,000, 19,000, 33,000
A) What are the mean and the median of each data set?
B) Which measure of center will provide the most accurate estimate of the costs of cars purchased at the two dealerships?

Answer 1

A) The mean of set 1 is 53,800, while the mean of set 2 is 38,600. The median of set 1 is 42,000, while the median of set 2 is 28,000.
B) The median is a more accurate estimate, because each set has 1 particularly large outlier which heavily skews the mean. In each set, the mean is actually higher than 4 out of the 5 data points, which is not very accurate in describing how much the typical car costs.