Mean Absolute Deviation (MAD) is the average distance from a center (mean or median).
Key Concepts
- Concept: Center: mean x̄ or median x̃
- Concept: Deviation: absolute value |x_i − center|
- Concept: MAD interpretation: average spread around center
Steps
- Action: Choose center (mean or median)
- Action: Compute |x_i − center| for each data point
- Action: Average deviations: sum of deviations / n
Formula
$$mathrm{MAD}_{text{mean}} = frac{1}{n} sum_{i=1}^n |x_i – bar{x}|,qquad
mathrm{MAD}_{text{median}} = frac{1}{n} sum_{i=1}^n |x_i – tilde{x}|.$$