Measures of center and spread: follow the bouncing ball • Name: ______________

Students will be able to....

After returning to the classroom and continuing on the second day of this activity the students will learn to calculate the mode, median, mean, minimum, maximum, and range for the seat data.

Mode: The mode is the value that occurs most frequently in the data.

Median: The median is the central (or middle) value in a data set. If a number sits at the middle, then it is the median. If the middle is between two numbers, then the median is half way between the two middle numbers. Note the data must be in order (sorted) before you can find the median.

Mean (average): The mean, also called the average, is calculated mathematically by adding the values and then dividing by the number of values. The number of values is also called the sample size n. The symbol μ is sometimes used for the mean.
mean = sum of data/sample size or count of the data = Σx/n

Minimum: The smallest value.

Maximum: The largest value.

Range: The maximum − the minimum.

You will working in pairs on this exercise.

  1. __________________ Type of ball
  2. _________ Diameter of ball in centimeters
  3. Drop the ball from a height of 100 centimeters. Record the height of the bounce in centimeters. Repeat ten times.

    Data table
    Bounce height/cm
    ___________
    ___________
    ___________
    ___________
    ___________
    ___________
    ___________
    ___________
    ___________
    ___________
  4. __________ Find the mode for your bounce height data.
  5. __________ Find the median for your bounce height data.
  6. __________ Find the mean for your bounce height data.
  7. __________ Find the minimum for your bounce height data.
  8. __________ Find the maximum for your bounce height data.
  9. __________ Find the range for your bounce height data.

Creative Commons License 2007 College of Micronesia-FSM. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

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