_______ is an arithmetic average.

_______ is an arithmetic average.

• A. Mode
• B. Median
• C. Mean
• D. None of the above

Answer: (C)

An arithmetic average is the mean: add all the values and divide by how many there are. It’s the single value that summarizes the data by balancing the sum of the numbers. The other two measures are different: the mode is the most frequent value, and the median is the middle value when the data are arranged in order (or the average of the two middle values if there’s an even number of data points). For example, with 2, 4, 6, 8, the arithmetic average is (2+4+6+8)/4 = 5, and the median is also 5 in this case, while there is no repeated value for a mode. In a set like 1, 2, 100, the arithmetic average is (1+2+100)/3 ≈ 34.33, whereas the median is 2 and there isn’t a mode.

An arithmetic average is the mean: add all the values and divide by how many there are. It’s the single value that summarizes the data by balancing the sum of the numbers. The other two measures are different: the mode is the most frequent value, and the median is the middle value when the data are arranged in order (or the average of the two middle values if there’s an even number of data points). For example, with 2, 4, 6, 8, the arithmetic average is (2+4+6+8)/4 = 5, and the median is also 5 in this case, while there is no repeated value for a mode. In a set like 1, 2, 100, the arithmetic average is (1+2+100)/3 ≈ 34.33, whereas the median is 2 and there isn’t a mode.