over the first years of owning her car, Gina drove about 12,700 miles the first year, 15,478 miles the second year, 12,675 the third year, 11,850 the fourth year, and 13,075 the fifth year.
a. find the mean, median, and mode of this data.
explain which measure of central tendency will best predict how many miles Gina will drive in the sixth year.

Question

over the first years of owning her car, Gina drove about 12,700 miles the first year, 15,478 miles the second year, 12,675 the third year, 11,850 the fourth year, and 13,075 the fifth year.
a. find the mean, median, and mode of this data.
explain which measure of central tendency will best predict how many miles Gina will drive in the sixth year.

anonymous · Answer

Mean is the average of the miles. Add them all up and divide by the number of items in the set, so in this case 5. 
The median is the middle number of the set. Order the numbers from least to greatest and cross out the top, then the bottom and repeat until you're left with either one or two numbers. In instances where you have two middle numbers, you average those final two and that's your median number. 
The mode is the most often occurring number. Numbers only occur once in this set so there is no mode. If you had a set that looked like 3, 4 ,9, 6, 4, 12, the mode would be 4 because it happens more then the other numbers. 

The mean, median, and mode are all measures of central tendency. Which one do YOU think would make it easiest to guess what she'll drive next year?