Averages

Why are they important?

Averages are used for displaying information or calculating an average. It also means you don’t need to look at so much information as it can be combined into 1 number.

A story regarding Averages

Three 18 year olds were going on holiday aboard but wanted to know the Average age of the people there. When they rang up they were told the Average age was 21.

So they went on holiday but discovered a bunch of old people and babies…

This was because they were given the Mean. If they had asked for the range and mode they would of be given:

Range: 82

Mode: 67

What they should of done

Let’s say there is 20 people at this place. The age of the people there are: 9 8 6 20 83 67 67 67 67 1 2 50 60 60 45 52 63 62 64 65

To work effectively with these numbers it makes sense to order them like this: (Just make sure to cross off the numbers as you copy them to make no mistakes)

9 8 6 20 83 67 67 67 67 1 2 50 60 60 45 52 63 62 64 65

1 2 6 8 9 20 45 52 50 60 60 62 63 64 65 67 67 67 67 83

Types of Averages

Range:

How to work it out: Take the lowest number from the highest (1 – 83 = 82)

How to remember it: Not really an easy way to remember it just think of the “Range”

Mode:

How to work it out: Look at the numbers and find the most common

How to remember it: Think about the most common number – Mode/Most

Medium:

How to work it out: Order the numbers in order and cross them out from one side to another. If the amount of numbers is even and you are left with 2 numbers add the 2 numbers up and divide by 2

How to remember it: Think about the middle number – medium/middle

Mean:

How to work it out:

How to remember it: Think about the hardest average to work out.