Question

1. the mean absolute deviation (mad) is used to measure:

a. how far data points are from the median
b. the average of all the data points
c. how far data points are from the mean
d. the range of the data set

Explanation:

To determine what mean absolute deviation (MAD) measures, we analyze each option:

• Option A: MAD is about distance from the mean, not the median. The measure for distance from median is median absolute deviation (MAD is different here, despite same acronym sometimes).
• Option B: The average of all data points is the mean, not MAD.
• Option C: MAD is calculated as the average of the absolute differences between each data point and the mean. So it measures how far data points are from the mean.
• Option D: The range is max - min, not related to MAD.

Answer:

C. How far data points are from the mean