Lesson Basics of Mean (Arithmetic Mean)

Arithmetic Mean, often simply known as mean or average is one of the most commonly used statistics. It is used for getting an estimate of the central value of a series. Though there are several estimates used for the same, like median and mode, mean is the most common of the three.

Mean can be categorized into three types:
1. Arithmetic Mean
2. Geometric Mean
3. Harmonic Mean

In this chapter we will study about the arithmetic mean. The formula for calculating the arithmetic mean is:



where is the ith element of the series. The mean is thus the sum of all elements of the series divided by the number of elements in the series.

Example: Find the arithmetic mean of the series: {1,4,7,8,10}.
Solution: The mean of the series would be

The formula for calculating geometric and harmonic mean is as follows:

Geometric Mean:
Harmonic Mean:

To calculate the mean of a series, you may use the following solver.