Why is it better to use the median instead of the mode on a dot plot?

The choice between using the median or the mode on a dot plot depends on the type of data you're analyzing and what you're trying to understand from it. The median is often a better measure of central tendency to use instead of the mode in certain situations because it is not influenced by outliers or extreme values.

The median is the value that lies in the middle of a data set when it is organized in ascending or descending order. If there is an odd number of values, the median is the middle number. If there is an even number of values, the median is the average of the two central numbers. This makes the median a good measure of central tendency for skewed distributions or when there are outliers because it gives a better representation of the data's center.

On the other hand, the mode is the value or values that appear most frequently in the data set. The mode can be useful in understanding what is common or typical in a data set, but if there are a lot of different values with similar frequencies, the mode may not represent the data set well. Additionally, on a dot plot where data points are plotted on a number line, the mode is simply seen as a spike where dots seem to cluster. In a multimodal distribution (one with multiple modes), the mode becomes less informative about the overall distribution.

In summary, the median is often preferred over the mode on a dot plot when you want a measure that is resistant to the influence of outliers and provides a good indication of the center of a data set, especially if the data is skewed.