When?

When you do a scientific investigation you need to repeat your readings. This allows you to
spot any errors in your data. You can then work out a mean of your repeated readings.

How?
1 Add up all the values in your set of data.
2 Divide this total by the number of values in your set of data.

Example 1
A group of students measured the time taken for 5 g sugar to dissolve in 250 cm3 of water.
These are their results:

27 s 31 s 32 s

Calculate the mean time taken for the sugar to dissolve.

Add up the values in the set of data: 27 + 31 + 32 = 90

90
Divide this total by the number of values: = 30 s
3

Example 2
A student was studying variation. She
measured the height of five girls in her class. This is
the data she collected:

154 cm 148 cm 160 cm 155 cm 163 cm

What is the mean height of these five girls?

Add up the values in the set of data: 154 + 148 + 160 + 155 + 163 = 780

780
Divide this total by the number of values: = 156 cm
5



© Oxford University Press 2014 www.oxfordsecondary.co.uk/acknowledgements

This resource sheet may have been changed from the original.
Example 3
A pair of students measured the temperature rise in a chemical reaction using a
temperature probe. Calculate the mean temperature rise.

Reading 1 2 3

Temperature rise (°C) 15.4 17.1 14.9

Add up the values in the set of data: 15.4 + 17.1 + 14.9 = 47.4

47.4
Divide this total by the number of values: = 15.8 °C
3

Watch out!
  to include this unit in your answer.
If your values have a unit, remember

 The mean is not always a whole number.

© Oxford University Press 2014 www.oxfordsecondary.co.uk/acknowledgements

This resource sheet may have been changed from the original.