The MATH behind Mean/Averages.

A Beginner to Advanced Guide.

If you’ve ever heard of the term “the average man”, you probably (at least once) have come across the history of the term “mean”.

The average man means what it says. It signifies taking the average on every man/woman to produce an “average man”. This was developed by The Belgian statistician, Quetelet.

He claimed that if we imagined 1000 flawed sculptures of a statue of a gladiator, on average, they would result in the original. (Mostly because the average cancels out errors — More explanation Later).

But then, Quetelet continued, if we measured a thousand real soldiers and averaged their body measurements, we could get the ideal, perfect soldier.

What he forgot was that not all variation is error. A 6'4-foot soldier might benefit from having a superior reach than the “average” soldier.

Mean has been used since the Greeks for tackling day-to-day challenges. The arithmetic mean was not the only mean value known to them.

In Pythagoras’ time, around 500 BC, three mean values were known. Namely: harmonic, geometric, and arithmetic mean.

Most people (including Data Scientists) are only familiar with arithmetic mean (typical average) and hence are unable to quickly solve…