Mean or median? You are planning a party and want to know how many cans of soda to buy. A genie off ers to tell you either the mean number of cans guests will drink or the median number of cans. Which measure of center should you ask for? Why?
To make your answer concrete, suppose there will be 30 guests and the genie will tell you either x-bar= 5 cans or M=3 cans. Which of these two measures would best help you determine how many can you should have on hand?
