Mean is the average of the numbers.
Table of Contents
How to Find the Mean
It is easy to calculate:
- add up all the numbers
- divide by how many numbers there are
In other words it is the sum divided by the count
Example
What is the Mean of these numbers?
4, 10, 7
| Step 1 | Add the numbers | 4 + 10 + 7 = 21 |
| Step 2 | Divide by how many numbers (there are 3 numbers) | 21 / 3 = 7 |
The Mean is 7
Mean For Negative Numbers
How to handle negative numbers?
Adding a negative number is the same as subtracting the number (without the negative).
Example
4 + (−1) = 4−1 = 3.
Knowing this, let us try!
Example
Find the mean of these numbers:
−4, 7, 3, −10, 5
The sum of these numbers is −4 + 7 + 3 − 10 + 5 = 1
There are 5 numbers.
The mean is equal to 1 ÷ 5 = 0.2
The mean of the above numbers is 0.2
Here is how to do it one line:
Note:
the mean above is also called the Arithmetic Mean. There are other means such as the Geometric Mean and Harmonic Mean.