Suppose we have a data set of the number of car accidents per day in Los Angeles during the year 2013. The data was input into a spreadsheet manually by an assistant at the Department of Transportation. For one day in June 2013, he input that there were 1230 car accidents; but there were actually only 123 that day. How will this error affect the measures of center for this data?
A)The mean and the median will be higher than they should be.
B)The mean and the median will not be affected by this error.
C)The mean will be higher than it should be, but the median will not be affected.
D)The median will be higher than it should be, but the mean will not be affected.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The mean is sensitive to extreme values or outliers, so an incorrect input of 1230 instead of 123 will significantly increase the mean. The median, however, is less sensitive to extreme values, as it is the middle value of a data set when ordered, and this single error will not change the position of the median value significantly, if at all.

Suppose We Have a Data Set of the Number of Car