NCERT Class 10 Mathematics

STATISTICS 273

Clearly, 2 is the number of wickets taken by the bowler in the maximum number
(i.e., 3) of matches. So, the mode of this data is 2.

In a grouped frequency distribution, it is not possible to determine the mode by
looking at the frequencies. Here, we can only locate a class with the maximum
frequency, called the modal class. The mode is a value inside the modal class, and is
given by the formula:

Mode =^10

(^2) 10 2
lhff
ff f

✂ ✁

✄✆ ✝☎

✞ ✂ ✂ ✟

where l = lower limit of the modal class,

h = size of the class interval (assuming all class sizes to be equal),

f 1 = frequency of the modal class,

f 0 = frequency of the class preceding the modal class,

f 2 = frequency of the class succeeding the modal class.

Let us consider the following examples to illustrate the use of this formula.

Example 5 : A survey conducted on 20 households in a locality by a group of students
resulted in the following frequency table for the number of family members in a
household:

Family size 1 - 3 3 - 5 5 - 7 7 - 9 9 - 11

Number of 78221

families

Find the mode of this data.

Solution : Here the maximum class frequency is 8, and the class corresponding to this
frequency is 3 – 5. So, the modal class is 3 – 5.

Now

modal class = 3 – 5, lower limit (l) of modal class = 3,class size (h) = 2

frequency (f 1 ) of the modal class = 8,

frequency (f 0 ) of class preceding the modal class = 7,

frequency (f 2 ) of class succeeding the modal class = 2.

Now, let us substitute these values in the formula :