Averaging Whole Numbers I'm curious which way is correct when rounding whole numbers. My issue is that the customer wants decimal places included in the average when the User only ever will select whole numbers in a range from 1-5. In my head it makes sense to return a whole number instead of a rational or irrational number. Results out of 5 questions: Question1 = 4 Question2 = 3 Question3 = 5 Question4 = 3 Question5 = 2 SUM = 17 which is correct for the average 3 or 3.4?

kybudmanqm

kybudmanqm

Answered question

2022-09-09

Averaging Whole Numbers
I'm curious which way is correct when rounding whole numbers. My issue is that the customer wants decimal places included in the average when the User only ever will select whole numbers in a range from 1-5. In my head it makes sense to return a whole number instead of a rational or irrational number.
Results out of 5 questions:
Question1 = 4
Question2 = 3
Question3 = 5
Question4 = 3
Question5 = 2
SUM = 17
which is correct for the average 3 or 3.4?

Answer & Explanation

Krista Leon

Krista Leon

Beginner2022-09-10Added 12 answers

Depends on whether an arithmetic mean or a median is appropriate. Both have advantages and disadvantages. An arithmetic mean is more expressive, but subject to gross distortion by outliers. A median is much more robust and guaranteed to give a representative number, but says almost nothing about the overall distribution.
Without knowing what the numbers describe (satisfaction? grades? household size?) there is no way of telling you which one is "right".

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