An Explanation of Statistical Tools from DocumentingExcellence.com
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Various way to measure average

Simple examples of the three averages. Consider what each of the three averages indicates about the following set of numbers.

4, 5, 5, 6, 15
MODE: A quick look over the five numbers reveals that 5 is the most frequently appearing number. There are two 5's. It is the mode. If there are other values tied for frequency then there may be more modes.	MEDIAN: Once again a quick look over the numbers reveals that the second five is at the middle of a ranked order. Thus, 5 is the number with two numbers with higher rank and two number with lower rank.	MEAN: The mean average of a set of numbers is the center value. To calculate the mean we add together or sum the numbers then divide by the count of how many numbers we summed up. 4 + 5 + 5 + 6 + 15 = 35 Next divide 35 by the count of 5. 35 / 5 = 7Thus the mean of the numbers is 7. Looking at the numbers we can see that the mean average is greater than four out of the five numbers. Is the mean average of 7 a representative average?