When you are comparing two sets of data, and one set is strongly skewed and the other is symmetric, which measures of the center and variation should you choose for the comparison?

Question

Ashley Herman

Mathematics

16 July, 09:43

When you are comparing two sets of data, and one set is strongly skewed and the other is symmetric, which measures of the center and variation should you choose for the comparison?

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Kylie Herring · Answer 1

Given that one set of data is symmetric while the other one is strongly skewed, the most appropriate measure of the center is median. Median is the value of the data which is at the center. This means that half of data are less than the median while half are greater than.

The variation can however be measured through the use of Quartiles method in order for our data to be equally divided into four equal group that allows us to determine how the data are spread out.