Statistics 101: Mean, Median, Mode
How Daya taught us the importance of Statistics?
Did you watch CID growing up? If yes, weren’t you completely fascinated with how knocking down a door helps him win the case!
Daya was and is our Desi Sherlock Holmes!
And I think you and I can acquire his detective skills and utilize it in our daily life.
Daya’s strong detective skills did not come from drinking Horlicks.
They came from the background calculation in his mind, which helped him find patterns in the data.
You would ask what branch of Mathematics does he use? The answer is Statistics.
How does Statistic help him solve these cases?
Statistics allows him to collect, analyze, interpret, present and organize the data.
Daya - the detective and you - the Data Analyst, can use Statistics as a toolkit to make sense of the massive amount of data that businesses and organizations collect.
It helps you solve the mystery of what the numbers are trying to tell you. And, just like Daya, Statistics is always on the lookout for clues, patterns, and relationships in the data.
How will Statistic help you become the best Data Analyst?
Just like a Tightrope walker would lose balance without his trust in himself and inertia against the wire,
A Data Analyst would never succeed unless he has the basic sense of mean, median, and mode.
They'll guide you through the stormy seas of data, helping you make sense of it all and ultimately, lead us to victory.
But hey, I’ll tread lightly on you as this is just an Introductory Email.
So, let’s cover the base first.
1. Mean
Are you one of those who starts their semester with a gallon full of motivation to secure straight As.
But by the middle of the semester, you find yourself scratching your head to get a C-.
In that case, when you know that you are scoring a definite C minus in one course, you should make estimated calculations to let’s say get a 3.50 cgpa.
Say, you have 6 courses, your target is a cgpa of 3.50, and you are scoring 2.50 in one course most definitely.
So, you observe that you might get:
A+ in Course 2 = 4.00 gp
B- in Course 3 = 3.00
A in Course 4 = 3.89
A- in Course 5 = 3.78
B+ in course 6 = 3.67
You will sum up (2.5 + 4 + 3 + 3.89 + 3.78 + 3.67) / 6 = 3.47
So, when you see that your expected grades are giving you a lower desired cgpa
You would decide to One-up you grade say in Course 3 and Course 6, to get you the desired cgpa of 3.5.
So, you were able to make your decisions through this simple calculation called mean!
Have you ever wanted to find the average of a bunch of numbers? That's where the Mean comes in!
But watch out, if you have a few extreme values they can skew your mean. In those cases, you might want to use the Median instead!
So, for instance, if you secure 2A*s instead of expecting 1A*, you might even cross your expectation.
2. Median
So, I had a group of friends who had a height range between 5’2 to 5’7. We all sort of blended each other, the 5’7 to 5’5 heighted would stand on either end, and me the 5’2 would stand in the center.
A perfect semi-circle.
Until, this guy with a height of 6’2 walks in, completely turning our scaled group pictures to this irregular “skewed” group picture with a guy standing on either end.
So, we found a way to solve this skew-ness. Call me mean, but…
I would ask him to take the group picture in the form of a selfie so his tallness does not ruin our uniformity in heights and we were able to dim his height affect (that caused the skew) by simply showing his face!
So, I still took my center space, and I was able to remove the outlier effect.
This is what Median does.
The Median is the middle value in a set of numbers. To find it, you just have to arrange your values in order and pick the one in the middle.
It's a great way to find the average of your values when you have a few outliers that might skew your mean.
Imagine trying to find the average height of a group of people, where one of them is Amitabh Bacchan.
The median would give you a much better representation of the majority of the group!
3. Mode
Ever had a friend in your circle who somehow ends up in all the pictures? Whether it’s your solo, a two-person picture, or a group picture that person is in it.
Annoying, no? Well, who am I to talk? Because that is me!
So, this makes me the Mode!
Or the most played song in your playlist, comes out to be your Mode!
The Mode is the value that appears most frequently in a set of numbers. It's like finding the most popular item on a list.
No need to worry about those outliers or weird combinations. Just the plain and simple favorite!
So there you have it, Mean, Median and Mode! These three Musketeers of Statistics are like the foundation of a building, helping you understand and make sense of all your data.
So, why is Statistic so important for Data Analysis?
Data analytics is the process of discovering insights and patterns in data.
And, just like Sherlock Holmes needs his trusty magnifying glass, data analytics needs Statistics.
Statistics plays a crucial role in the data analytics process by providing:
A way to test hypotheses and determine the significance of findings
Probability distributions and estimation to better understand machine learning algorithms
Tools for data prediction and classification
Descriptive statistics and data visualization to present insights to a non-technical audience
Methods for calculating probability and spotting clusters in data
We will discuss this in depth in our upcoming emails….
In conclusion, Statistics is the backbone of data analytics.
It provides the tools and techniques needed to make sense of data and extract insights and patterns.
So, don't be intimidated by this subject!
Embrace the power of Statistics and see how it can help you uncover the secrets hiding in your data.
Thanks for reading!
Stay tuned for next week's topic, where we'll be discussing the exciting world of MS excel.
Hafsa and Zain from Team Inspired Analyst