Averages

DontbeAverage.jpgAn average is a number that is typical of a set of numbers or scores.

There are three commonly used types of average.

Median
 The median of a set of scores is the middle score when the scores have been arranged in order from smallest to largest.
Mode
 The mode is the most frequent score, that is, the one that occurs most often.
Mean
 The mean of a set of scores is the sum of all of the scores divided by the number of scores.

 

Example
Answer

For the following set of test results of 10 people:

3, 8, 5, 6, 8, 5, 4, 1, 10, 5

Find:

(a) The mean

(b) The mode

(c) The median

 

(a) The mean

Y8_Averages_01.gif

(b) The mode = 5 (occurs 3 times)

(c) Arrange in order:

1, 3, 4, 5, 5, 5, 6, 8, 8, 10

Median is 5

The Working with Data activity provides practice at finding the mean, median and mode.