Mean

Summary

There are several kinds of mean in mathematics, especially in statistics. Each mean serves to summarize a given group of data, often to better understand the overall value (magnitude and sign) of a given data set. For a data set, the arithmetic mean, also known as "arithmetic average", is a measure of central tendency of a finite set of numbers: specifically, the sum of the values divided by the number of values. The arithmetic mean of a set of numbers x1, x2, ..., xn is typically denoted using an overhead bar, . If the data set were based on a series of observations obtained by sampling from a statistical population, the arithmetic mean is the sample mean () to distinguish it from the mean, or expected value, of the underlying distribution, the population mean (denoted or ). Outside probability and statistics, a wide range of other notions of mean are often used in geometry and mathematical analysis; examples are given below. Pythagorean means The arithmetic mean (or simply mean) of a list of numbers, is the sum of all of the numbers divided by the number of numbers. Similarly, the mean of a sample , usually denoted by , is the sum of the sampled values divided by the number of items in the sample. For example, the arithmetic mean of five values: 4, 36, 45, 50, 75 is: The geometric mean is an average that is useful for sets of positive numbers, that are interpreted according to their product (as is the case with rates of growth) and not their sum (as is the case with the arithmetic mean): For example, the geometric mean of five values: 4, 36, 45, 50, 75 is: The harmonic mean is an average which is useful for sets of numbers which are defined in relation to some unit, as in the case of speed (i.e., distance per unit of time): For example, the harmonic mean of the five values: 4, 36, 45, 50, 75 is Inequality of arithmetic and geometric means AM, GM, and HM satisfy these inequalities: Equality holds if all the elements of the given sample are equal.

Official source

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean

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Related concepts (90)

Mean

Statistics

Statistics (from German: Statistik, () "description of a state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a scientific, industrial, or social problem, it is conventional to begin with a statistical population or a statistical model to be studied. Populations can be diverse groups of people or objects such as "all people living in a country" or "every atom composing a crystal".

Arithmetic mean

In mathematics and statistics, the arithmetic mean (pronˌærɪθˈmɛtɪk_ˈmiːn ), arithmetic average, or just the mean or average (when the context is clear) is the sum of a collection of numbers divided by the count of numbers in the collection. The collection is often a set of results from an experiment, an observational study, or a survey. The term "arithmetic mean" is preferred in some mathematics and statistics contexts because it helps distinguish it from other types of means, such as geometric and harmonic.

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