 Central moments are used in preference to ordinary moments, computed in terms of deviations from the mean instead of from zero, because the higher-order central moments relate only to the spread and shape of the distribution, rather than also to its location.Sets of central moments can be defined for both univariate and multivariate distributions.The "n"th moment about the mean (or "n"th central moment) of a real-valued random variable "X" is the quantity "μ""n"