EMS - 7th Grade Math

Mean Absolute Deviation is the mean of the distances of each value from their mean.

 

Huh???

 

 

 

 

 

Did I really did mean to use "mean" twice?  Yes, but let's try a kid friendlier definition.

 

Mean Absolute Deviation is the average distance each number is from the mean.

 

Let's give an example...

Suppose there were 2 players shooting free throws.  
They wrote down the number they made out of 10.

 

Player #1 - 5, 5, 6, 6, 7, 7

 

Player #2 - 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10

 

To find out who the better shooter is, we might find the average (mean).

In this case the average is...

 

Player #1 - 5 + 5 + 6 + 6 + 7 + 7 = 6

              6

 

Player #2 - 2 + 3 + 4 + 8 + 9 + 10  = 6

           6

 

You can see the averages are the same, but you can clearly see player #1 is more consistant than player #2.  How much more consistant is Player #1 than Player#2?

 

That is what MAD is about.  How close the numbers are to the average.

 

Find out how to calculate MAD in the following lesson.

 

To find out more about MAD, click on this website.