Question

a) Determine the mode of the data.
b) Decide whether it would be appropriate to use either the mean or median as a measure of center. Explain your answer.

Medical School Faculty. The Association of American Medical College (AAMC) in a compiles data on medical school facility and publishes the results in AAMC Faculty Roster. The following table presents a frequency distribution of rank for medical school faculty during one year.

Short answer

a) The mode is Assistant professor.

b) The mode for the given data would be appropriate to utilize.

The reason for this is that the data set is based on a non-numerical rank for medical school faculty over a year. That is to say, the data set is made up entirely of qualitative information. As a result, for non-numerical data, the mean and median cannot be calculated. As a result, for the supplied data, the mean and median would be inappropriate. In addition, for qualitative data, the approach would be acceptable.

Step-by-step solution

Step 1. Given information.   

We have given data that presents a frequency distribution of rank for medical school faculty during one year.

Step 2. To find mode. 

The greatest frequency is the mode of the data set.

Thus, the mode of the data set is Assistant professor.

Step 3. Decide either the mean or median as a measure of center.  

The mode would be appropriate for the given data.

The reason for this is that the data set is based on the rank of medical school faculty members over the course of a year, which is not numerical. In other words, the data set is qualitative. As a result, the mean and median cannot be computed for non-numerical data. As a result, the mean and median would be inappropriate for the supplied data. Additionally, the approach would be excellent for qualitative data.