Coding Statistical Variables

Jamie Frost
www.drfrost.org
@DrFrostMaths

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Teacher Notes
Prerequisite
Knowledge Future Links
• Mean of listed data.
• Median and quartiles of listed data.
• Standard deviation of listed data.

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 What do you think is
INSTRUCTIO the mean height of
NAL VIDEO people in the room
with you?

Now everyone stand on their chair, as

shown.
What happens to the mean height?
What happens to the range of the
heights?
Coding Variables

Let
? ? ? ?

When we write a statistical variable

within an expression, it replaces
each data value according to that
expression.
This is known as coding.
Coding Variables

Let

a
a Calculate
b Calculate b

c What do you c
notice? In increasing each
value by , we also
increased the mean
by , i.e.
Does this Work on all Transformations?

Let

a
a Calculate
b Calculate b

c What do you
c
notice? . Squaring the values
does not square the
mean, i.e. although ,
Coding Averages

This means that any linear

! If a variable is coded transformation to the variable
using , then (i.e. adding, subtracting,
multiplying, dividing) will affect
the mean in the same way.

Example:

The weights of cats in

kg is recorded.
If , when calculate .

kg
Effect of Coding on Other Statistics
Range

Media Mea 𝑸𝟑
n n
𝒙
Range

Media Mea 𝑸𝟑
n n
𝒚 =𝒙+𝟏𝟎𝟎𝟎𝟎
Salary
k k k k k k k ($)

It’s visually easy to see that What about the median?

as the values shift up, so The median will be
does the mean in the same affected in the same way
way. as the mean.
What about quartiles? What about the range?
Any quantile (e.g. As is being added to both the minimum
median, quartiles) will and maximum value, the difference
be affected in the same between these, i.e. the range, will be
way. unaffected.

If the values were doubled however

(), then this would double the range.
Summary of Effects of Coding
! Effect of and Effect of and
Averages and As per As per
measures of operation operation
position
(mean, mode, median,
quartiles, minimum)
Measures of No effect As per
spread operation
(range, interquartile
range, standard
Old mean
deviation) Old Coding New New
mean
? ?
? ?
? ?
? ?

is not affected To work backwards,

𝑦 +5 by or , so we can rearrange
𝑥=
3 for
Quickfire Questions

Old mean Old Coding New mean New

36 4 𝑦=𝑥−20𝟏𝟔𝟒 ? ?

𝟑𝟔𝟖
? ? 𝑦 =2 𝑥7216
35 4 𝑦=3 𝑥−20𝟖𝟓𝟏𝟐 ? ?

𝟒𝟎𝟑
? ? 𝑦=
𝑥
2 20 2
3

1127 𝑦 =
𝑥+10
3 𝟕𝟗
? ?

𝟑𝟎𝟎𝟐𝟓
? ? 𝑦 =
𝑥 −100
5 405
Example Exam Question
The following table summarises the times, minutes to the nearest minute, recorded
for a group of students to complete an exam.

a) Estimate the mean and standard deviation of these data.

b) Use linear interpolation to estimate the value of the median Ignore
c) Show that the estimated value of the lower quartile is to the
significant figures. calculatio
d) Estimate the interquartile range of this distribution n for
these.
The person timing the exam made an error and each student actually took
minutes less than the times recorded above. The table below summarises the
actual times.

e) Without further calculations, explain the effect this would have on each of the
estimates found in parts (a), (b), (c) and (d).

Median decreases by .
Coding is Mean decreases
?e Lower quartile decreases
by .
by .
unaffected.
Test Your Understanding

1 A zoologist records the weights

of various animals, , in kg. They
use the coding
a ?
Halved and increased
State the effect on: b by
Halved ?
and increased
the mean weight. c by
Halved ?
a
the lower quartile.
b d Halved ?
the interquartile range.
c
the standard deviation.
d

2 Some values are recorded, with

and . The values are coded
using
a
b 𝑦=2𝑥+1=𝟐𝟏 ?
?
Calculate:
a the mean .
b the standard deviation .
Retrieving the Original and from Coded
Data
One purpose of coding data is that it might make the data easier to
manage, e.g. turning big values into small values.
If we calculated the mean and standard deviation of the simpler coded
data, we would then want to know the same for the original data.

The price of diamond rings in pounds, a

is coded using
These
Frequency formulae
are covered
in skill 534.

Use the
coding
Determine the mean and standard backwards to
a retrieve the
deviation of . b
original
and
mean.
Hence determine the mean and
b The doesn’t
standard deviation for the price of
affect
the diamond rings.
Test Your Understanding
3 [Edexcel IAL Mathematics Oct a
2022 Stats 1 Q3]
Morgan is investigating the body
length, centimetres, of squirrels.
A random sample of squirrels is ?
taken and the data for each
squirrel is coded using

The results for the coded data

are summarised below b

Find the mean of .

a Find the standard deviation
ofb .
?
Determining the Coding From Coded
Values
At the Annual Walrus
Symposium, the weights of Substitute the
some walruses are coded pairs of values
using into the
The table shows the original coding.
and coded weights of some Rearrange into a
of these walruses. form we can
more easily
(kg) solve on our
calculator.
(kg) Use the
simultaneous
Determine the value of and
equation solver
on your
calculator.
Test Your Understanding
4 [Edexcel S1 June 2015 Q2a]
An estate agent recorded the price per square metre, p £/m2, fortwo-
bedroom houses.
He then coded the data using the coding , where and are positive
constants.
His results are shown in the table below.

Find the value of and the value of .