What does "average" mean?
Let's try it with stickers first, no football yet. Say you have 12 stickers, and 3 friends. You want to share them so everyone gets the exact same amount.
12 stickers ÷ 4 people (you and your 3 friends) = 3 stickers each. That sharing trick has a name: finding the average.
The average is what you get when you share a group of numbers out equally. Add them all up, then divide by how many there are.
Now let's try it with football
Team Coral played 6 matches. Instead of stickers, we are sharing out goals. Add up every goal they scored, then divide by 6 matches, and you get their average.
Data just means "a bunch of information." Six matches with six scores? That's data. Anything you can count or measure is data.
Below is the data for Team Coral's last 6 matches. Your job: drag every match into the Stats Machine, and it will find the average for you, and show you the maths.
Play the Game The Stats Machine 📊
Drag all 6 scorecards into the Stats Machine, and it will crunch the numbers into ONE super useful number: the average.
How to play
- Press and hold a match card, then drag it into the Stats Machine box below.
- Do this for all 6 cards.
- Press "Crunch the Numbers! 🧮".
- Watch the bars appear, then watch the gold AVERAGE line find its level.
🧮 The Stats Machine
The real formula
Grown-up mathematicians write "finding the average" like this. It looks fancy, but it's the exact same sharing trick you just did.
"Sum" just means "add them all up." That's the whole formula: add, then divide.
- An average shares a group of numbers out equally into ONE number.
- To find it: add everything up, then divide by how many things there are.
- A bunch of information, like 6 match scores, is called data.
- Coaches, teachers, and computers all use averages to understand data fast.
🎮 3D Vox game: Goal Towers
Three matches, three towers of goals. Move blocks until every tower matches, and you will SEE the average appear!
Next: you'll draw a line that can guess the future.