Find the Mean, Median, or Mode of a Data Set Wrap-Up

In this lesson, you entered a data set into a spreadsheet and found the mode, median, or mean.

You learned that the mode is the number that occurs most often in a list.

It’s most useful if you have a data set where numbers show up frequently, and it’s one way to understand what is typical in the set.

The median is the middle number in a list of numbers that have been arranged in order.

It’s a good choice to use if your data set has a few outliers, or unusually large or small members of the set.

These outliers can significantly affect how you would describe the set, so finding the median can provide a better idea of what is typical.

The mean is another name for the average of a group of numbers.

Using the mean is a good way to say something about the data set as a whole with one number.

It will be close to many data points, so it will show what it would look like to even out the set’s extremes.

If you found the mode of the starter data set, it would tell you what temperature occurred most frequently in the month, But it’s important to understand that there are different ways to interpret the same data set.

If you or your teacher would like, feel free to calculate the other statistics that you didn’t do in the main lesson.

Whether you’re using statistics to calculate weather data, to analyze your grades, or to find meaning in sales data for your future company, understanding basic data analysis is a practical skill in school, work, and life in general.