HH.1 Calculate mean, median, mode, and range

U2A
A music student is cataloging some songs and noting the length of each. The 7 songs have lengths of:
1 minute1 minute4 minutes3 minutes6 minutes6 minutes7 minutes
What is the mean song length?

minutes

1 answer

To calculate the mean song length, we need to sum the lengths of the songs and then divide by the number of songs.

The lengths of the songs are: 1 minute, 1 minute, 4 minutes, 3 minutes, 6 minutes, 6 minutes, and 7 minutes.

  1. Calculate the total sum of the lengths:

\[ 1 + 1 + 4 + 3 + 6 + 6 + 7 = 28 \text{ minutes} \]

  1. Count the number of songs:

There are 7 songs.

  1. Calculate the mean:

\[ \text{Mean} = \frac{\text{Total Sum}}{\text{Number of Songs}} = \frac{28}{7} = 4 \text{ minutes} \]

Thus, the mean song length is 4 minutes.

Now, let's also calculate the median, mode, and range:

  1. Median:

    • To find the median, we need to sort the song lengths in ascending order:
    • Sorted lengths: 1, 1, 3, 4, 6, 6, 7.
    • The median is the middle value. Since there are 7 values (an odd number), the median is the 4th value: \[ \text{Median} = 4 \text{ minutes} \]
  2. Mode:

    • The mode is the number that appears most frequently. In the sorted list (1, 1, 3, 4, 6, 6, 7), both 1 and 6 appear twice. \[ \text{Mode} = 1 \text{ and } 6 \text{ minutes} \]
  3. Range:

    • The range is the difference between the longest and shortest songs: \[ \text{Range} = \text{Longest} - \text{Shortest} = 7 - 1 = 6 \text{ minutes} \]

In summary:

  • Mean: 4 minutes
  • Median: 4 minutes
  • Mode: 1 and 6 minutes
  • Range: 6 minutes