5.3 Grouped Data to Find the Mean
Let’s examine this concept with an actual problem and data.
Example A
60 students were asked how many books they had read over the past 12 months. The results are listed in the frequency
distribution table below. Calculate the mean number of books read by each student.
TABLE5.2:
Number of Books Number of Students (Frequency)
0 1
1 6
2 8
3 10
4 13
5 8
6 5
7 6
8 3To determine the total number of books that were read by the students, each number of books must be multiplied by
the number of students who read that particular number of books. Then all the products must be added to determine
the total number of books read. This total number divided by 60 will tell you the mean number of books read by
each student.