The following prices for the same model of camera are advertised at different stores: $1258.00, $1372.00, $1695.00, $1352.00, $1349.00, $1260.00, $2890.50, $1283.00
a) What is the mean cost of the camera? (Value: 2 pts)
b) What is the median cost of the camera? (Value: 2 pts)
c) Which of these, mean or median, would make a better measure of central tendency in this case? Explain your answer. (Value: 2 pts)
a) To find the mean cost of the camera, we need to add up all the prices and then divide by the total number of prices.
Mean = (1258.00 + 1372.00 + 1695.00 + 1352.00 + 1349.00 + 1260.00 + 2890.50 + 1283.00) / 8
Mean = 11359.50 / 8
Mean = 1419.94
Therefore, the mean cost of the camera is $1419.94.
b) To find the median cost of the camera, we need to rearrange the prices in ascending order and find the middle value.
$1258.00, $1260.00, $1283.00, $1349.00, $1352.00, $1372.00, $1695.00, $2890.50
Since there are 8 prices, the median will be the average of the 4th and 5th prices.
Median = ($1349.00 + $1352.00) / 2 = $1350.50
Therefore, the median cost of the camera is $1350.50.
c) In this case, the median would make a better measure of central tendency. This is because there are two prices that are significantly higher than the rest ($1695.00 and $2890.50), which can skew the mean towards the higher end. The median, on the other hand, is not affected by extreme values and gives a better representation of the typical cost of the camera.