- List the sales figures: \(\{25, 20, 15, 22, 20\}\).
- Count the frequency of each entry: \(20\) appears twice, while others appear once.
- Identify the value with the highest frequency.
- The mode is \(\boxed{20}\).
Explanation
- Analyze the data and identify the goal
To determine the mode of the dataset representing the number of cars sold by five salespersons, we first look at the given data:
- Frank: 25 cars
- Sara: 20 cars
- Randy: 15 cars
- Braheem: 22 cars
- Alice: 20 cars
The set of values is: \(\{25, 20, 15, 22, 20\}\). The mode is defined as the value that appears most frequently in a given set of data.
- Count the frequencies of each value
Next, we count how many times each unique number of cars sold appears in our list:
- The value \(15\) appears \(1\) time.
- The value \(20\) appears \(2\) times.
- The value \(22\) appears \(1\) time.
- The value \(25\) appears \(1\) time.
- Identify the mode
Comparing the frequencies:
- Frequency of \(15\) is \(1\).
- Frequency of \(20\) is \(2\).
- Frequency of \(22\) is \(1\).
- Frequency of \(25\) is \(1\).
The value \(20\) has the highest frequency (it appears twice). Therefore, the mode of the dataset is \(20\).
Examples
The mode is a useful statistical measure in everyday life, such as when a manager wants to know the most common number of sales made by team members to set performance benchmarks. For instance, in a retail store, if most sales staff sold \(20\) items, the store manager might use \(20\) as the "typical" performance target for the team.