Calculating and Interpreting Mean Absolute Deviation

Calculating and Interpreting Mean Absolute Deviation

Introduction

Two data sets can have the same mean but different amounts of spread. Mean Absolute Deviation (MAD) is a measure of variability that describes, on average, how far the data values are from t...

Maya and Liam each took five math quizzes.

Maya and Liam’s five math quiz scores are shown here.

Both have a mean score of 80. Maya’s scores total 400, and dividing by 5 gives 80. Liam’s scores also total 400, giving a mean of 80. However, Maya’s scores stay closer to the mean, while Liam’s scores are more spread out.

To measu...