What is the Mean in Math

When taking up your first course in mathematics and statistics, you will come across many terms that you will need to know. One of the most widely used terms that you will come across is 'mean'. The aim of this article is to explain what is the mean in math and then talk about some other terms like median and mode, that are also frequently used concepts.

The three concepts of mean, median and mode will be explained in the following lines along with examples. They are concepts used to deal with sets of numbers, compare them and analyze in detail.

What is Mean?

Mean is another term for 'Average'. It is one of the most widely used concepts in applied mathematics. In statistics, a set of numbers is known as a 'population'. 'Mean' of a population is the number obtained by summing all the numbers in the set together, and then dividing the total by the total quantity of numbers which are added together. An average or mean value of a population is indicator of the central value around which the whole set is arranged. Mean or average is often calculated for various reasons and is perhaps one of the widely used of mathematical concepts.

Let us solve an example. Consider a set of numbers like '20, 10, 40, 30, 60'. We have to calculate the mean or average of these numbers. The first step to find the mean of these numbers is to add them up together.

The sum of these numbers is (20 + 10 + 40 + 30 + 60 = ) 160. The next step is to divide the sum by the total quantity of numbers which is 5. To get the mean, we divide 160 by 5, which gives the quotient to be 32. So, 32 is the mean value around which the numbers in this set are distributed. Now let us have a look at what is median and mean. Check out what weighed average calculation is.

What is Median?

Median is the central or middle number among a set of numbers (of odd quantity), when they are arranged in ascending or descending order. It is a concept used in statistics. Let us see how to calculate median value from a set of numbers. Consider the following set of numbers - '8, 6, 2,1, 11'. When arranged in ascending order, the sequence of numbers becomes - '1, 2, 6, 8, 11'. As you can see, here 6 is exactly in the center and hence, it is the median value.

What is Mode?

In a set of numbers, mode is the number which appears maximum number of times in it. Consider a set of numbers like '8, 7, 3, 4, 8, 9, 8'. As you can see, all the numbers except 8, appear only once. So here 8 is the 'mode' value.

Mathematics is all about practice. It provide tools which can be used to make sense of data, that is continuously bombarded at us. Median, mean and mode are terms from statistics, that are most helpful when you are analyzing a random bunch of numbers. As you study math further, you will learn about many more math terms and concepts that make your analysis simpler.