Question

Meaning of MAD
The mean absolute deviation (MAD) is a statistic that measures the spread of a data set.



Polina’s data has a MAD of 2
2 baskets.



Will the MAD of Rishi’s data be larger than, smaller than, or equal to the MAD of Polina’s data?

Answer 1

I don’t have Rishi’s data (or the picture) in your message, so I can’t tell yet. Can you paste Rishi’s numbers or the diagram?

To compare, you (or I) would compute each MAD and compare. Reminder:
- MAD = average of the absolute deviations from the center. (Usually “mean absolute deviation” uses the mean as the center: MAD = (1/n) ∑ |xi − x̄|. Some curricula use the median as the center — tell me which definition your class uses.)
- If Rishi’s values are, on average, farther from his center than Polina’s values are from Polina’s center, Rishi’s MAD is larger; if they are closer, his MAD is smaller; if the average absolute distances are the same, the MADs are equal.

Send Rishi’s data (or the graphs) and I’ll compute and compare them.