How to Find the Formula to Measure an Average for Height
An average is a single number used to describe the numbers of a set. There is more than one definition of "average," since one definition may not accurately describe a set in one situation as well as another definition.
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Instructions
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Sum the heights of all the subjects, then divide the sum by the number of subjects. This gives the average. In summation notion, the formula is: average = ('height) /n, where n is the number of subjects and the summation is performed over all subjects. This type of average is called a "mean."
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Find the average height for a large population as follows. If the number of subjects are too many to simply sum up, or if only proportions of the population in different age ranges is available, a formula for finding an average is: average = ('center of height interval --- proportion of population). For example, the center of the interval 5 feet to 5 feet 2 inches is 5 feet 1 inch.
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Find the "median" average by ordering the set of heights and finding the middle data point. For example, the median of 5 feet, 5 feet 6 inches and 5 feet 8 inches is 5 feet 6 inches. If there are an even number of heights, average the middle two by taking the mean: summing them and dividing by two.
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Handle multiple measurements of a single subject, taken for the sake of accuracy, by again summing the data points and dividing by the count of data points: 'height /n. Throw out the outliers to improve accuracy: [('height)-max(height)-min(height)] /(n-2).
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Tips & Warnings
Note that the merit of the median average is that it is not strongly influenced by outliers. For example, if someone unusually short or tall is in the pool, they do not throw off the average as significantly as for a mean average.
