Section 1
Central Tendency
Book
Version 1
By Boundless
By Boundless
Boundless Statistics
Statistics
by Boundless
5 concepts
![Thumbnail](../../../../../../figures.boundless-cdn.com/17727/raw/mparison-pythagorean-means.jpg)
Mean: The Average
The term central tendency relates to the way in which quantitative data tend to cluster around some value.
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The Average and the Histogram
The shape of a histogram can assist with identifying other descriptive statistics, such as which measure of central tendency is appropriate to use.
![Thumbnail](../../../../../../figures.boundless-cdn.com/17735/raw/mathematicalmeans.jpg)
The Root-Mean-Square
The root-mean-square, also known as the quadratic mean, is a statistical measure of the magnitude of a varying quantity, or set of numbers.
Which Average: Mean, Mode, or Median?
Depending on the characteristic distribution of a data set, the mean, median or mode may be the more appropriate metric for understanding.
![Thumbnail](../../../../../../figures.boundless-cdn.com/17736/square/3492263284-366afc8256-o.jpeg)
Averages of Qualitative and Ranked Data
The central tendency for qualitative data can be described via the median or the mode, but not the mean.