Describing Data Numerically: Background You’ll Need 4

  • Calculate the mean of a data set by hand

Calculating Mean

Do you recall how to calculate the mean of a data set?

To try it, we’ll use the data set below to find the mean.

Employee

Monthly Salary in January

(in thousands of dollars)

Monthly Salary in February

(in thousands of dollars)
Employee 1 [latex]4[/latex] [latex]4[/latex]
Employee 2 [latex]6[/latex] [latex]8[/latex]
Employee 3 [latex]3[/latex] [latex]3[/latex]
Employee 4 [latex]5[/latex] [latex]5[/latex]
Employee 5 [latex]6[/latex] [latex]6[/latex]
Employee 6 [latex]3[/latex] [latex]3[/latex]

The same steps we used to calculate the median with the statistics tool can be used to find the mean.

[Trouble viewing? Click to open in a new tab.]

Use the tool to find the mean of the January salaries and compare it to your by hand calculation. Did they match?​

Now, consider what the mean tells us about the data.