Question

Match List-I with List-II.

List-I (Nature of data)	List-II (Most appropriate measure)
(A) Qualitative data	(I) Geometric mean
(B) Raw data with extreme values	(II) Median and Mode
(C) Dealing with rates, speeds and prices	(III) Mode
(D) Calculating relative change	(IV) Harmonic mean

Choose the correct answer from the options given below:

• (A) - (IV), (B) - (II), (C) - (I), (D) - (III)
• (A) - (III), (B) - (I), (C) - (II), (D) - (IV)
• (A) - (III), (B) - (II), (C) - (IV), (D) - (I)
• (A) - (IV), (B) - (III), (C) - (I), (D) - (II)

Hint:

Match each data type to the measure that is resistant to its specific property (categories, outliers, ratios, or growth).

Answer 1

The Correct Option is C

Step 1: Qualitative data (A) cannot be averaged using arithmetic operations since the categories are not numeric, so the only central tendency measure that applies is the Mode, which identifies the most frequently occurring category. So (A) - (III).
Step 2: Raw data containing extreme values (B) is best summarised by the Median and the Mode, because both resist outliers, unlike the arithmetic mean which gets pulled towards extreme values. So (B) - (II).
Step 3: When dealing with rates, speeds and prices (C), quantities that are ratios of two different units such as distance per unit time, the Harmonic Mean is the correct average because it correctly weights the reciprocal relationship between the quantities. So (C) - (IV).
Step 4: When calculating relative change (D), such as growth rates or compounded percentage changes over several periods, the Geometric Mean is used because it correctly compounds multiplicative changes rather than simply summing them. So (D) - (I).
Step 5: Putting these together: (A)-(III), (B)-(II), (C)-(IV), (D)-(I), which is option 3.