How to Easily Find Averages on your Graphing Calculator.

If you work with large sets of numbers, then you will probably have to find averages, arithmetic means, and other measures of central tendancy. Unfortunately, this is often a tedious task, and can be quite a pain. With the development of new calculators, however, there are now operations that will simply do it for you at the click of a button.

First, what you will want to do is enter all of your data. On new calculators such as the nSpire series, you can simply load a spread sheet onto the calculator. For older models you will have to manually enter them into your "L1," or list one. Make sure to enter all of you data accurately.

Next, you will want to find the "One-Variable Statistics" command. On the nSpire series, this is under menu -> Stat Calculations. It's the very first option. When you are under the command, you will be able to select what list you want to use, or on newer models with the spreadsheet app, it will allow you to select how many lists there are, and what lists you want. Then hit enter.

This command will allow you to see all the stats you would need for your data including arithmetic mean (x bar), median, standard deviation, and other less common stats. Enjoy!