Average Calculator

Mean: Sum divided by count (arithmetic average). Affected by outliers. Median: Middle value when sorted. Better for skewed data (income, home prices). Mode: Most frequent value. Useful for categorical data. Example: Salaries $30k, $35k, $40k, $45k, $200k - Mean = $70k (misleading), Median = $40k (typical), Mode = none. Median best represents "typical" here.

Use median when data has outliers or is skewed. Examples: Home prices (few mansions skew mean up), salaries (executives skew mean), test scores with few failures or perfect scores. Mean works for normal distributions: heights, weights, temperatures. Rule: If a few extreme values don't represent "typical," use median. Most statistics report both.

No mode means all values appear with equal frequency (no value repeats more than others). Example: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 - all appear once, no mode. Datasets can have multiple modes (bimodal, multimodal): 1, 1, 2, 3, 3 has modes of 1 and 3. Mode is most useful for discrete data: most common shoe size, favorite color, popular product.

Weighted average accounts for different importance. Formula: Σ(value x weight) / Σ(weights). Example: Grade calculation - Tests 40%, Homework 30%, Final 30%. Scores: 90, 85, 92. Weighted average = (90x0.4 + 85x0.3 + 92x0.3) / 1 = 89.1. Simple average would be 89, but weighted accounts for test importance.