Keskiarvotus

Keskiarvotus, also known as the arithmetic mean, is a fundamental concept in statistics and mathematics. It is calculated by summing all the values in a dataset and then dividing by the number of values. The formula for the arithmetic mean (x̄) of a dataset with n values is:

x̄ = (x1 + x2 + ... + xn) / n

The arithmetic mean is widely used due to its simplicity and the fact that it is the only measure of central tendency that always exists for a given dataset. It is particularly useful for symmetric distributions and datasets with no outliers. However, it can be misleading for skewed distributions or datasets with outliers, as it is sensitive to extreme values.

The arithmetic mean is just one of several measures of central tendency, which also include the median and the mode. The median is the middle value when a dataset is ordered from least to greatest, and it is less affected by outliers than the mean. The mode is the most frequently occurring value in a dataset.

In practice, the arithmetic mean is used in various fields, such as economics, finance, and science, to summarize data and make comparisons. For example, it is used to calculate average income, average test scores, and average stock returns. However, it is important to consider the distribution of the data and the presence of outliers when interpreting the arithmetic mean.