initial post What are the characteristics, uses, advantages, and disadvantages of each of the measures of location and measures of dispersion? Discuss them with examples first reply Measures of location and measures of dispersion are two different ways of describing quantitative variables. Measures of location are often known as averages. Measures of dispersion are often known as a variation or spread. Both measures are helpful with describing statistical information. (Lind, Marchal, & Wathen, 2015) The different measures of location include: the arithmetic mean, the median, the mode, the weighted mean, and the geometric mean. All of these measures of location pinpoint the center of a distribution of data. An advantage of measures of location is that the averages show us the central value of the data. A disadvantage of only using measures of location is that we may not draw an accurate conclusion because an average does not tell the spread of the data. Some examples of using measures of location include: finding the average price of a concert ticket, finding the average age of homeowners in a community, finding the averages shoe size of boys between the ages of 13-19, and finding the average amount of money people spend on food annually. (Lind, Marchal, & Wathen, 2015) The different measures of dispersion include: the range, the variance, and the standard deviation. All of these measures of dispersion tell us about the spread of the data and it helps us compare the spread in two or more distributions. Advantages of using measures of dispersion are that it gives us a better idea of the range in which an average was calculated, and it is easy to calculate and understand. A disadvantage of using measures of dispersion is that it is a broad measurement because it only shows the maximum and minimum values of data. For example, the salaries of dentists in the state of Georgia might range from $70,000-$120,000 (just a made up example – not necessarily accurate data). This information is great for someone to know the range of dentist salaries, but it lacks in showing specific information about dentists’ salaries. (Lind, Marchal, & Wathen, 2015) Lind, D. A., Marchal, W. G., & Wathen, S. A. (2015). Statistical techniques in business & economics. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education. Second Reply What are the characteristics, uses, advantages, and disadvantages of each of the measures of location and measures of dispersion? Discuss them with examples. These are the measures in common use of location and dispersion: arithmetic mean, median, mode, weighted mean, and geometric mean. The arithmetic mean, median, and mode The mean usually refers to the arithmetic mean or average. This is just the sum of the measurements divided by the number of measurements. We make a notational distinction between the mean of a population and the mean of a sample. The general rule is that Greek letters are used for population characteristics and Latin letters ar.