A single value which can be considered as typical or representative of a set of observations and around which the observations can be considered as Centered is called an ’Average’ (or average value) or a Centre of location. Since such typical values tend to lie centrally within a set of observations when arranged according to magnitudes, averages are called measures of central tendency.
Purpose
To examine various measures of central tendency.
In fact the distribution have a typical value (average) about which, the observations are more or less symmetrically distributed. This is of great importance, both theoretically and practically. Dr. A.L. Bowley correctly stated, “Statistics may rightly be called the science of averages.” The word average is commonly used in day-to-day conversations. For example, we may say that Okanga is an average boy of my class; we may talk of an average American, average income, etc. When it is said, “Okanga is an average student,” it means is that he is neither very good nor very bad, but a mediocre student. However, in statistics the term average has a different meaning.
The fundamental measures of tendencies are:
(1) Arithmetic mean
(2) Median
(3) Mode
(4) Geometric mean
(5) Harmonic mean
(6) Weighted averages
However the most common measures of central tendencies or Locations are Arithmetic mean, median and mode. We therefore, consider the Arithmetic mean.
