Did you know?
Did you know that the mean and median are two different ways to measure the center of a data set? The mean is found by adding up all the numbers in the set and then dividing by the total number of values. The median, on the other hand, is the middle value when the data is arranged in ascending order.
Let's take a look at two different data sets. In Data Set 1: 1, 1, 2, 3, 7, 9, 15, 17, 18, 20, 22, 29, the mean is calculated by adding up all the numbers and dividing by 12 (the total number of values). The result is 13.75. The median of Data Set 1 is 13.5, which is the value in the middle when the numbers are arranged in ascending order.
Now, let's move on to Data Set 2: 2, 2, 3, 9, 13, 17, 20, 20, 22, 23, 26, 35. The mean is found by adding up all the numbers and dividing by 12, which gives us a mean of 17.5. When the numbers are arranged in ascending order, the median of Data Set 2 is 19.5, which is the value in the middle.
Comparing the means of the two data sets, Data Set 1 has a smaller mean of 13.75 compared to Data Set 2's mean of 17.5. However, when comparing the medians, Data Set 1 has a larger median of 13.5 compared to Data Set 2's median of 19.5.
This shows that the mean and median can sometimes give different measures of the center of a data set, highlighting the importance of considering both statistics when analyzing data.
