Tell whether the mode, median or mean best describes each of the following

Question

1. The typical height of a fifth grader
2. The most typical color of sweaters in a store at the mall 
3. The typical number of children in a US family 

Answer 1

Reminder:

Mean is the average.

Mode is the one that appears most often.

Median is the one in the middle if you put numbers in a row from smallest to largest.

So, if there are 5 fifth graders and their heights are 60", 62", 50", 55", and 56"----- then you add all those inches together and divide by the number of fifth graders (5). 60+62+50+55+56 = __________

Then divide the sum, your answer by 5. That is the Mean or Average Height.

If you went to the mall and tallied all the orange sweaters, blue sweaters, green sweaters and black sweaters--

You might have 20 orange, 12 blue, 50 black sweaters 1 green. The mode is the one which appears most often, in this case black (50). Or you could look at it like this: Blue Black Black Blue Orange Blue Black Orange Black

Which color appears most on the list- There are 3 blue; 2 orange; and 4 black. Black is the mode.

Typical family size could be mean or median. If you had the total number of children in the U.S. you would divide it by the total number of families in the U.S. and you would get the mean or average number of kids in a family in the U.S.

If you put the number of kids in each family in a row from the smallest number of kids in a family to the largest number of kids in a family then you would look at the number toward the center of the row, that would be median. This way would be much much harder!

I hope this helped and didn't make it more complicated for you.

Answer 2

Mode is the value that appears most frequently in a data set.

Mean is the average of the numbers.

Median is the "middle" of a sorted list of numbers