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Central tendency is a way to describe the center of a data set. It represents a central point around which the data's values cluster. When we want to summarize or understand a large set of numbers quickly, we often look at measures of central tendency. The most common measures to determine this center are the mean, median, and mode. Each measure provides a unique perspective on the 'typical' value you might expect.

For example, the median tells us the middle value when data is ordered from the lowest to the highest, while the mode indicates the most frequently occurring value. Understanding central tendency helps individuals make informed decisions based on a given set of data, and it is widely used in fields such as economics, psychology, and education.

The arithmetic mean, commonly known as the average, is calculated by adding up all the values and then dividing by the number of values. It's one of the simplest and most reliable measures of central tendency, especially if the dataset does not contain outliers that could skew the result.

The computed mean should be considered as a point of balance in the dataset, where if the values are weights, the mean is the fulcrum on a balance scale. For the given data, the mean was calculated by summing up the numbers 11, 6, 4, 0, 2, 1, 12, 0, and 0 to get 36, and then dividing this total by the count of numbers, which is 9. As a result, the arithmetic mean is 4.

Descriptive statistics provide simple summaries about the sample and the measures. These summaries may either form the basis of the initial description of the data as part of a more extensive statistical analysis, or they may be enough in and of themselves for a particular study.

Techniques involved in descriptive statistics include the calculation of measures of central tendency, measures of variability such as the variance or standard deviation, and the use of graphs and charts to visualize data. The goal is to provide a quick and meaningful insight into the data's nature without requiring the observer to look at the entire set of values. For anyone analyzing data, descriptive statistics are an invaluable first step toward understanding what the numbers are suggesting.