With penalties and minimum withdrawal requirements to consider, timing is of the utmost importance when taking money from your IRA. (Getty Images) Individual retirement accounts, commonly known as IRAs, are retirement fund staples for many people.
In statistics, the mean is the mathematical average of a set of numbers. The average is calculated by adding up two or more scores and dividing the total by the number of scores. Consider the following number set: 2, 4, 6, 9, 12. The average is calculated in the following manner: 2 + 4 + 6 + 9 + 12 = 33 / 5 = 6.6.
2. Subtract the mean from each of your numbers in your sample. This will give you a figure of how much each data point differs from the mean. 1  For example, in our sample of test scores (10, 8, 10, 8, 8, and 4) the mean or mathematical average was 8.. Divide the sum by how many numbers there are in your sample (n). This will provide the average or mean of the data. 1  In the sample of test scores (10, 8, 10, 8, 8, and 4) there are six numbers, so n = 6. 2  The sum of the test scores in the example was 48.