Mean, Median, and Mode

Student: When do we use mean and when do we use median?

Mentor: It is up to the researcher to decide. The important thing is to

make sure you tell which method you use. Unfortunately, too often
people call mean, median and mode by the same name: average.

Student: What is mode?

Mentor: The easiest way to look at modes is on histograms. Let us

imagine a histogram with the smallest possible class intervals (see also
Increase or Decrease? Discussion ).

Student: Then every different piece of data contributes to only one bin in
the histogram.

Mentor: Now let us consider the value that repeats most often. It will
look like the highest peak on our histogram. This value is called the
mode. A histogram would have no mode if all the data points occur the
same number of times. If there are several modes, data is called
multimodal. Can you make an example of trimodal data?

Student: Data with three modes? Sure. Say, if somebody counted

numbers of eggs in 20 tree creepers' nests, they could get these
numbers: 4, 3, 1, 2, 6, 3, 4, 5, 2, 6, 4, 3, 3, 3, 6, 4, 6, 4, 2, 6. I can make
a histogram:
Mentor: There are three values that appear most often: 3, 4, and 6, so
all these values are modes. Modes are often used for so-called
qualitative data, that is, data that describes qualities rather than
quantities.

Student: What about median?

Mentor: Median is simply the middle piece of data, after you have sorted
data from the smallest to the largest. In your nest example, you sort the
numbers first: 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 eggs.
There is an even number of values, so the middle (or median) is
between the first and second 4. Because they are the same, we can
easily say that the median is four, but if they were different, say if the
median was between a 3 and a 4, we would do (3+4)/2=3.5.

Student: So, if there is an even number of values, the median is equal to

the sum of the two middle values divided by two.

Mentor: If no birds had nests with only one egg, we would have values
of 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. In this case, the middle number or the median would
be the second 4, and we would not need to add or divide because there
were an odd number of values.

Student: The last type of averages I would like to know about is mean.

Mentor: Sometimes it is called arithmetic mean, because there are other

things in math that are called mean. For example, there is a geometric
mean and a harmonic mean. The arithmetic mean of a set of values is a
sum of all values, divided by their number. In your nest example,

mean = (4+3+1+2+6+3+4+5+2+6+4+3+3+3+6+4+6+4+2+6)/20 = 3.85

Student: Which one is better: mean, median or mode?

Mentor: It depends on your goals. I can give you some examples to

show you why. Consider a company that has nine employees with
salaries of 35,000 a year, and their supervisor makes 150,000 a year. If
you want to describe the typical salary in the company, which statistics
will you use?

Student: I will use mode (35,000), because it tells what salary most
people get.

Mentor: What if you are a recruiting officer for the company that wants to
make a good impression on a prospective employee?

Student: The mean is (35,000*9 + 150,000)/10 = 46,500 I would

probably say: "The average salary in our company is 46,500" using
mean.

Mentor: In each case, you have to decide for yourself which statistics to
use.

Student: It also helps to know which ones other people are using!

Grouped Data Arithmetic Mean Tutorial

Grouped Data Arithmetic Mean Tutorial

Grouped Data Arithmetic Mean Definition:

Data arising from organising n observed values into a smaller number of
disjoint groups of values, and counting the frequency of each group; often
presented as a frequency table..

Formula:

Grouped Data Arithmetic Mean :

Arithmetic Mean = ΣfX/Σf
where
X = Individual score
f = Frequency

Grouped Data Arithmetic Mean Example: To find the Arithmetic Mean of

1,2,3,1,2,3,2.

The arithmetic mean = 1+2+3+1+2+3+2/7 = 14/7 = 2

In this case there are two 1's, three 2's and two 3's. The number of times each
number occurs is called its frequency. This can be clearly given in a table as
below.
 X Value Frequency(f) ΣfX

1 2 1*2=2

2 3 2*3=6

3*2=6
3 2

Step 1: Find Σf.

Σf = 7

Step 2: Now, find ΣfX.

ΣfX = ((1*2)+(2*3)+(3*2)) = 14

Step 3: Now, Substitute in the above formula given

Arithmetic mean = ΣfX/Σf = 14/7 = 2

The above example will lead you to calculate the Grouped data Arithmetic Mean
manually.

This tutorial will help you dynamically to find the Grouped data Arithmetic Mean problems.