The mean is sensitive to extreme values or outliers.
It is also known as the average.
The formula for calculating the mean is (Sum of all values) / (Number of values).
In a symmetric distribution, the mean, median, and mode are equal.
The mean can be used to compare different datasets with similar characteristics.
Review Questions
How do you calculate the mean of a dataset?
Why is the mean considered sensitive to outliers?
What happens to the mean if an extremely high or low value is added to a dataset?
Related terms
Median: The middle value in a dataset when it is ordered from least to greatest, or the average of two middle numbers if there is an even number of observations.
Mode: The value that appears most frequently in a dataset.
Range: The difference between the highest and lowest values in a dataset.