Understanding the Sample Mean

The sample mean is a measure of the central tendency of a data set. It is calculated by adding up all data points and dividing by the number of points. This is often used in statistics to estimate the average of a population.

Formula: \( \text{Sample Mean} = \frac{\sum_{i=1}^n x_i}{n} \)

Real-Life Example

Suppose you have the following scores for five students in a quiz: 80, 85, 90, 75, and 88. To find the average score, or sample mean, you would add all the scores together and divide by the number of students.

Calculation: \( \frac{80 + 85 + 90 + 75 + 88}{5} = 83.6 \)

Thus, the average score for the quiz is 83.6.