AVERAGES

Arithmetic mean
The arithmetic mean, or just the mean for short, is the most common average.
If there are n numbers in a set, then
!"# !" !!! !"#$%&' !" !!! !"#
Mean= !

Examples
(1) In 5 tests a student’s marks were 14, 19, 21, 7 and 11. What is her mean mark?
!"!!"!!"!!!!! !"
Mean = !
= !
= 14.4

(2) A football team has played 8 games and have a mean score of 1.5 goals per game. How
many goals has the team scored?
Total = Mean x n = 1.5 x 8 = 12

Median
The median of a set of numbers is the middle number when the numbers are arranged in order.
Example
Find the median of 12, 4, 23, 9, 8, 12, 10
First arrange the numbers in order 4, 8, 9, 10, 12, 12, 23 Since there are seven numbers the
middle number is the fourth number, the median is 10
If there is an even number of terms in the set, find the mean of the two middle terms, the answer
is the median.
Example
Find the median of 2.4, 5.8, 0.9, 4.2, 0.4, 2.7
Arrange the numbers in order 0.4, 0.9, 2.4, 2.7, 4.2, 5.8
The median is the mean of the two middle numbers, 2.4 and 2.7
!.!!!.!
Median = = 2.55
!

Mode
The mode is the number that occurs most often
Example
16 people were asked which size of shoe they wore. Their answers are shown in the frequency
table.
Shoe size 5 6 7 8 9 10
Frequency 1 2 5 4 3 1

Find the (a) mode (b) median (c) mean

(a) the highest frequency is 5. 5 persons wear size 7, so the mode is 7.
(b) There are 16 people, so the median shoe size is the mean of the 8th and 9th person.
The 8th person has shoe size 7, and the 9th person has shoe size 8
!!!
Median = !
= 7.5
! !! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! (!" ! !)
(c) Mean = = 7.6 (1d.p.)
!"

Exercises
(1) Find (a) the mean (b) the mode (c) and the median of the following set of numbers:

(i) 21, 16, 25, 21, 19, 32, 27 (ii) 43, 46, 47, 45, 45, 42, 47, 49, 43, 43

(2) The table shows the number of children per family in the families of the pupils in a class

Number of children 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Frequency 1 3 9 5 5 2 1

Find (i) the mode (ii) the median (iii) the mean