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'''Average''' is the sum of a group of numbers divided by the number of numbers it the group. For example, the average of 3, 5, and 7 is <math>15 \div 3=5</math>.
'''Average''' is a term in mathematics used to measure the 'central tendency' or 'expected value' of a data set; in conversational terms, it would be expected to be a value somewhere in the middle of the data.
There are various [[descriptive statistics]] that can be chosen as a measurement of the this central tendency, such as the [[mode]], the [[median]] and the [[mean]], this latter coming in a variety of forms: [[harmonic mean]], [[geometric mean]] and '''arithmetic mean'''. The '''arithmetic mean'' is the most common type of mean, and it is the one that most people would generally take as the '''average''.
Thus one way of defining the '''average''' would be:
* the sum of a group of numbers divided by the number of numbers it the group.
Please see the table of mathematical symbols for explanations of the symbols used.
==Example of calculation==
The average of 3, 5, and 7 is <math>15 \div 3=5</math>.