Practice Mean vs Median in Statistics
Use these practice problems to test your method after reviewing the concept explanation and worked examples.
Quick Recap
Mean and median are both measures of center but respond differently to extreme values (outliers).
Imagine a room with 10 people earning \50,000 each. Mean and median are both \50,000. Now a billionaire walks in. Mean jumps to \91 million! But median stays around \50,000. Mean is a pushover that gets bullied by extremes; median stands firm.
Example 1
mediumHouse prices on a street (in thousands): 200, 210, 190, 205, 195, 800. Calculate the mean and median. Which better represents a typical house price?
Example 2
mediumTest scores: 78, 82, 79, 81, 80. Calculate both the mean and median. What do you notice?
Example 3
mediumSalaries at a small company: \30k, \32k, \35k, \33k, \31k, \150k. Should the company report the mean or median salary to represent a typical employee's pay? Justify.
Example 4
mediumA runner's practice times (in minutes) are 24, 25, 24, 26, 25, 24. Would the mean or the median better describe a typical practice time? Explain.