Introduction
Arithmetic mean
Summary
Instruction
The mode is the least frequently used measure of central tendenct. It is most often used with non-numeric data, like names or nationalities.
In real-life datasets, a mode is insensitive to extreme observations. Extreme observations may have importance only in really small samples. Take a look at the following table:
| Set | Mode |
|---|---|
| 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 | 1 |
| 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 9 | 1 |
| 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 97 | 1 |
| 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 997 | 1 |
| 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, -1003 | 1 |
In these examples, changing one element in any set doesn't change the mode. The arithmetic means would differ in this case, though.
