The mean is the average of the numbers. It is easy to calculate: add up all the numbers, then divide by how many numbers there are. In other words it is the sum ...ShowAdsHideAdsAboutAdsHowtoFindtheMeanThemeanistheaverageofthenumbers.Itiseasytocalculate:addupallthenumbers,thendividebyhowmanynumbersthereare.Inotherwordsitisthesumdividedbythecount. Example1:WhatistheMeanofthesenumbers?6,11,7Addthenumbers:6+11+7=24Dividebyhowmanynumbers(thereare3numbers):24/3=8TheMeanis8WhyDoesThisWork?Itisbecause6,11and7addedtogetheristhesameas3lotsof8:Itislikeyouare"flatteningout"thenumbersExample2:Lookatthesenumbers:3,7,5,13,20,23,39,23,40,23,14,12,56,23,29Thesumofthesenumbersis330Therearefifteennumbers.Themeanisequalto330/15=22Themeanoftheabovenumbersis22NegativeNumbersHowdoyouhandlenegativenumbers?Addinganegativenumberisthesameassubtractingthenumber(withoutthenegative).Forexample3+(−2)=3−2=1.Knowingthis,letustryanexample:Example3:Findthemeanofthesenumbers:3,−7,5,13,−2Thesumofthesenumbersis3−7+5+13−2=12Thereare5numbers.Themeanisequalto12÷5=2.4Themeanoftheabovenumbersis2.4Hereishowtodoitoneline:Mean=3−7+5+13−25=125=2.4Tryityourself! NowhavealookatTheMeanMachine. AdvancedTopic:themeanwehavejustlookedatisalsocalledtheArithmeticMean,becausethereareothermeanssuchastheGeometricMeanandHarmonicMean.  TheMeanMachineMedianModeCentralMeasuresCopyright©2017MathsIsFun.com