Question

What are the advantages and disadvantages of mean, median and mode?

Answer 1

Hint: In this problem, we need to brief the advantages and disadvantages of mean, median and mode. For solving this problem, we first need to have a clear understanding of what does mean, median and mode mean.

Complete step-by-step answer:
Mean is the most commonly used measures of central tendency. It actually represents the average of the given collection of data. It is applicable for both continuous and discrete data. It is equal to the sum of all the values in the collection of data divided by the total number of values.
Median is the middle value among the observed set of values and is calculated by arranging the values in ascending order or in descending order and then choosing the middle value. Generally median represents the mid-value of the given set of data when arranged in a particular order.
The most frequent number occurring in the data set is known as the mode. Mode is the number from a data set which has the highest frequency and is calculated by counting the number of times each data value occurs.

Data	Advantages	Disadvantages
Mean	Takes account of all values to calculate the average.	Very small or large values can affect the mean.
Median	The median is not affected by very large or small values.	Arranging the data in ascending or descending order of magnitude is time-consuming in the case of a large number of observations.
Mode	The only averages that can be used if the data set is not in numbers.	There can be more than one mode, and there can also be no mode which means the mode is not always representative of the data.

Note: One should be very careful while distinguishing them. Although their meanings might seem to be easily understandable, they might be tricky in certain circumstances.