Calculating the mean, median, and mode of a group of numbers helps us summarize the data in different ways. Knowing these three terms is super useful when you're working with numbers. Let’s go through each one!

Mean

The mean is what most people call the average. To find the mean, follow these steps:

1. Add all the numbers together. For example, if you have these numbers: 2, 3, 5, 7, and 10, you would do this: $2 + 3 + 5 + 7 + 10 = 27$

2. Count how many numbers you have. In this case, there are 5 numbers.

3. Divide the total by the count: $\text{Mean} = \frac{27}{5} = 5.4$

And that’s how you find the mean!

Median

The median is the middle number in your list when you put them in order. If you have an odd number of values, it’s easy to find. If it’s even, you take the two middle numbers and find their average.

1. Put your numbers in order. For the numbers 3, 5, 10, 2, and 7, you would arrange them like this: 2, 3, 5, 7, 10.

2. Find the middle number. With 5 numbers, the median is the third number, which is 5.

If you have an even set like 2, 3, 5, and 7:

1. The two middle numbers are 3 and 5.
2. To calculate the median: $\text{Median} = \frac{3 + 5}{2} = 4$

Mode

The mode is the number that shows up the most in your list.

1. Look at your numbers. For example, if you have 1, 2, 2, 3, 4, the mode is 2 because it appears the most often.

2. There can be no mode, one mode, or more than one mode. Sometimes, you may have two modes (bimodal) or even more modes (multimodal).

So, that’s a quick summary of the mean, median, and mode. Finding these values helps to simplify data, and each gives us a different view of the same group of numbers. It’s really useful to know how to calculate them!