Logic & numbers
2, 2, 2, 18. Is “average: 6” the whole story?
Mean: 6. Median: 2.
The answer
Mean: 6. Median: 2.
The idea
A summary statistic answers a particular question about a set of values.
An example
Replace 18 with 38. The mean becomes 44 divided by four, or 11; the median remains 2. The example shows how one changed value can affect these summaries differently.
Try it
Would you report the mean, median, or both to describe these four scores? State what you want the reader to understand.
More context
The sum is 24; divide by four for the mean. The two middle scores are both 2. One large value moves the mean much more than the median.
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