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#3 2005-11-29 18:47:33
- justlookingforthemoment
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Re: mode and mean
When you post, you might want to allow a little time in between your visits so everybody has a chance to read it.
Mean normally refers to the arithmetic average of a set of numbers. So if you have a set of numbers (1, 2, 2, 4, 6) then to work out the mean -
* you find the sum of those numbers, which is 15.
* since there are 5 numbers, you divide 15 by 5 to find the average or mean.
* the mean is 5.
The mode of a set of numbers is the number that has the largest amount of observations. So if you use the same set as above, the mode is 2, because is appears the most times out of the set.
Mode can also be used for sets which aren't numeric - that is, they don't use numbers. So if we had a set (pencil, eraser, ruler, ruler, pencil, ruler, sharpener, ruler) the mode would be ruler, since it appears four times.
Hope that helps.
#4 2005-11-29 21:53:52
- mathsyperson
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Re: mode and mean
If you have a set like (1, 1, 2, 4, 5, 5, 7) then there are two modes, 1 and 5, because they appear the joint-most amount of times.
But if you have a set like (1, 3, 6, 9, 14, 29) then there are no modes, because they all appear the same amount of times.
The median's feeling left out, so I'll put him in.
The median is the middle in a set of numbers when they are arranged in order.
Using justlooking's set, that would be 2. If she had put them like (2, 4, 1, 6, 2) then you would have to arrange them in order first.
Why did the vector cross the road?
It wanted to be normal.