Blog 4 (Melina Dabney): Help the Pirates: Mean, Median, and Mode



1) Today I will be teaching you about mean, median, and mode.

2) This information will help you contextualize a distribution of numbers.

The scenario: A group of pirates are shipwrecked on an unknown island. Everyday the temperature changes drastically. Help the pirates organize the data by using mean, median, and mode so that they can be better prepared for the weather while they fix their ship.

Temperatures (in degrees fahrenheit):
60, 55, 76, 77, 78, 78, 79, 80, 80, 90, 80

Step One: Median
To find the median, or "middle point" organize the group of numbers from least to greatest. Then cross off one number from the left, and one number on the right, do this until you reach the middle-most number.

• 55, 60, 76, 77, 78, 78, 79, 80, 80, 80, 90
• median: 78

Step 2: Mode

The mode is the number that occurs the most.

• mode: 80

Step 3: Mean

The mean is the average for the set of numbers. To calculate the mean first add all the numbers and divide the sum by how many numbers are in the set.

• (55+60+76+77+78+78+79+80+80+80+90) / 11 = 75.72

The Point

Now the pirates can anticipate what the weather will be like on a given day. Weather stations will often have the average, highs, and lows of temperatures for a given place so that people can plan what to wear, when to go out, and so fourth, like the pirates!

Work Cited (Image)

"Pirate Island." Blogspot. N.p., 16 May 2013. Web. 10 Dec. 2015. 

     <http://sambaforrats.blogspot.com/2013/05/pirate-island.html>.