Of course, this set of values is very simple compared to data sets you’re likely to encounter in real life.

In the example set, the mode is 3, since it occurs twice and all the other values occur only once. To find the mode: simply look to see which value shows up the most. When a set has an even number of values, the median is the mean of the two middle values (in other words, you find the median by adding the two middle numbers together and dividing by two). In a set of seven numbers arranged in increasing value, the median is the fourth number (since there are three before and three after). To find the median: find the value that’s sequentially in the middle.

This is what most people are referring to when they refer to the average of some set of numbers. To find the mean: add up all the values (2+3+3+4+6+8+9=35) and then divide that total by the number of values (7), resulting in a mean of 5. Here’s an example set of seven values: 2, 3, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9. To illustrate the difference, let’s look at a very simple example. The mode of a set of values is the most frequently repeated value in the set. In contrast, the median is the middle number in a set of values when those values are arranged from smallest to largest. The mean is the number you get by dividing the sum of a set of values by the number of values in the set. They mean the same thing, but in the context of math and statistics, it’s better to use the word mean to distinguish from other things that might be casually referred to as “average” values in a general sense (meaning values that are the most representative or common within the set).

In math, the word mean refers to what’s informally called the average. The mode is simply the value that occurs the most in the set. When you arrange a set of values from smallest to largest, the median is the one in the middle. You find the mean (informally called the average) by adding up all the numbers in a set and then dividing by how many values there are.

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