Average or Arithmetic Mean--Top 10 Salaries in Sports and Boston Teams

Average or arithmetic mean is the central tendency of a set of data. An average is the sum of a list of numbers divided by the number of numbers in the list.

To practice finding averages, the attached pdf lists the top 10 paid athletes in the National Football League, National Hockey League, Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer, National Basketball Association, and NASCAR and their yearly salaries. Add the top 10 of any sport and divide that sum by 10 and you have the average of these top 10 athletes. And if top 10s were not enough, I have provided the salaries for the Boston Red Sox, Celtics, Bruins, Patriots, and the New England Revolution. You can find the averages of these salaries as well. 

For 2nd and 3rd grade you can just add the salary numbers in the millions (they are highlighted in yellow). 4th-7th graders should not only add the millions but the entire 7 or 8 digit salaries and find the averages.

Example: Find the average of the numbers 6, 11, and 7. First add the numbers: 6 + 11 + 7 = 24. Then divide the total of 24 by how many numbers there are (3). 24/3 = 8. So 8 is the average among 6,11, and 7. 

When there are 10 items on the list, you have to divide the total by 10. When dividing the total by 10, you simply take away one place value on the end. For example, a sum of 4,560 divided by 10 is 456. What if you are dividing a sum of 285 by 10? Since the number 285 has a decimal at the end: 285.0, simply move the decimal over to the left one place value: 28.5.

When adding the numbers, start by adding the one’s column or units digits vertically and place any carry (number of 10s) on the top of the next most left column and circle that carry number. Add that carry to the numbers in the left column and place any new carry from the current column on the top of the next left column.

Again, to find the average salary, find the sum of the top 10 salaries and divide by 10 (reduce the sum by one place value).