Mean Absolute Deviation Worksheet

Mean Absolute Deviation

Read each question carefully and follow the instructions to calculate the Mean Absolute Deviation (MAD) for the given data sets. Show all your work.

1. What does Mean Absolute Deviation (MAD) tell us about a data set? Explain in your own words.

2. Fill in the blanks to complete the steps for calculating Mean Absolute Deviation:

Step 1: Calculate the   of the data set.

Step 2: Find the   between each data point and the mean.

Step 3: Calculate the   of these absolute differences.

3. Calculate the Mean Absolute Deviation for the following data set: {5, 7, 8, 10, 10}

Show your work below.

4. A student recorded the number of minutes they spent reading each night for a week: {20, 25, 15, 30, 20, 25, 20}. Calculate the Mean Absolute Deviation.

Show your work below.

5. If Data Set A has a MAD of 2.5 and Data Set B has a MAD of 0.8, which data set has values that are more spread out from the mean?

6. A higher Mean Absolute Deviation indicates that the data points are generally closer to the mean.