Frequently Asked Questions
An outlier is an extreme value that is much higher or lower than the rest of the data. Outliers can significantly skew the mean but have little to no effect on the median or mode.
Yes. If every number in the dataset appears only once, there is no number that appears most often, so there is no mode
Yes. A dataset can have two modes (bimodal), three modes (trimodal), or more if multiple numbers appear with the same highest frequency.
These three measures are only a single snapshot of your data’s center. They don’t tell you anything about the data’s range, spread, or overall shape. For that, you would need other statistical measures.
Imagine five salaries: $30k, $40k, $50k, $60k, and one outlier at $100k. The mean is $56k, but the median is $50k. The median is a better representation of the typical salary.
No, you do not need to sort the numbers to find the mean. However, sorting is a required first step in finding the median.
