GED Math for the Election Year

We’re all watchin’ the election campaign on the news, right? I mean, those guys are all over the place. So, here’s where I’m gettin’ my numbers on who’s ahead. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/polls/

My question was, how to they figure the average?

When I first checked ‘em, the poll numbers for Biden for the democrats were 3%, 2%, 1%, 1%, 4%, and 3%, and the average was 2.3%. So, what do you think they mean by average? People usually mean what those math people call “mean.” To get the mean, you add the numbers together and then divide by how many numbers there are. So, I can figure out if that’s what they’re doing:

3 + 2 + 1 + 1 + 4 + 3 = 14

14/6 = 2-2/6, or 2-1/3, or 2.3% … so far, so good.

The numbers for Huckabee said 17%, 11%, 8%, 10%, 6%, and 8%, and the average was 10%. Let’s check this one:

17 + 11 + 8 + 10 + 6 + 8 = 60

60 / 6 = 10%

Yup, they’re finding the mean… adding the numbers together, then dividing by how many numbers they added.

Does that give you a good picture of what the numbers mean, do you think?

I wanna look some more at these numbers….