Which term describes the arithmetic average?

Which term describes the arithmetic average?

• A. Median
• B. Mode
• C. Mean
• D. Range

Answer: (C)

The mean is the arithmetic average. It’s found by adding all the values together and then dividing by how many values there are. For example, with scores 78, 82, 85, and 90, the sum is 335 and the mean is 335 ÷ 4 = 83.75. This single number represents the dataset’s center by spreading the total evenly across all observations. This differs from the median (the middle value when data are ordered) and the mode (the most frequent value) and from the range (the difference between the highest and lowest values). The mean works well for numerical data without extreme outliers, but outliers can pull it away from the central tendency, which is why sometimes the median is preferred in skewed distributions.

The mean is the arithmetic average. It’s found by adding all the values together and then dividing by how many values there are. For example, with scores 78, 82, 85, and 90, the sum is 335 and the mean is 335 ÷ 4 = 83.75. This single number represents the dataset’s center by spreading the total evenly across all observations. This differs from the median (the middle value when data are ordered) and the mode (the most frequent value) and from the range (the difference between the highest and lowest values). The mean works well for numerical data without extreme outliers, but outliers can pull it away from the central tendency, which is why sometimes the median is preferred in skewed distributions.