There are many regular words and phrases that mean something in mathematics. You may have come across a problem with the word “is” that requires some clarification. In the following article, we’ll answer what does is mean in math and provide some additional definitions of commons words and their relation to mathematics.
In math, the word is doesn’t mean anything by itself. The word is only asking you for something back. For example, the question “What is…” will require you to provide a response of something and in math that something is almost always a number.
This can be broken down further for other types of questions that require a different type of answer. For example:
- “Who is…” will require a response of a person
- “Where is…” will require a response of a location
- “When is…” will require a response of a time
- “Why is…” will require a response of a reason
However, it’s important to note that it will be rare to be asked any of the Who, Where, When, and Why questions in mathematics because math is always looking for a number and none of those questions will result in a number answer.
Therefore, the word is doesn’t mean anything specific in mathematics. It is used the same way it is used in English. However, since you asked the question, you might still need clarification on your math question.
The most likely scenario is you are looking for the definition of another word, such as “of” which is often used.
Definitions of Math Terms
Let’s take a look at the following math terms and define each. Keep in mind that each of those can be used in conjunction with the word “is” or any other word defined below. You can mix and match them, so be sure to look at each definition of the word in your question.
What Does Of Mean in Math?
In math, the word “of” means a percentage of something. The question is asking you for something of something else. For example, here are a few questions where you might encounter the word:
- What is 20% of 100? The answer is 20.
- What is X of Y? The answer depends on the values of X and Y.
- What is 1/3 of 30? The answer is 10.
Each of those questions is asking for something of something else. Therefore, the word “of” means you are looking to find a portion of value with another given value.
What Do Mean, Median, Mode, and Range Mean in Math?
You might have seen these 4 definitions together at some point in a math course. These are common ways to break down a group of values and pull out something interesting. Each of those is essentially a fancy word to answer a question. Let’s define each below.
What Does Mean Mean in Math?
That’s a question full of mean. In mathematics, the word mean is used to define the average of something. It’s just a fancy way to say the average. But in mathematics there are different ways to take an average. For example, the word median is also an average, but we’ll define that in a moment.
The mean is where you take an an average of all the values by summing them together then dividing by the number of values. For example, take the following equation.
What is the mean of the following numbers? 5, 7, 10, 16, and 20.
To find the mean, we have to sum up all the numbers, which comes out to 58. Then we divide that number (58) by the number of values we added together, which is 5. So 58 / 5 = 11.6 The mean of those values is 11.6.
The mean is essentially what you know as the average of a group of numbers.
What Does Median Mean in Math?
Similar to the mean, the median is also an average of a group of numbers. However, it is calculated differently than the mean. More specifically, the median is the most middle number of a group of numbers. Let’s take a look at how we can calculate the median.
What is the median of the following numbers? 5, 7, 10, 16, and 20.
If we’re looking for the most middle number of a group, we first have to sort the numbers in the correct order from largest to smallest. Next, we will take the total number of numbers, which is 5. So the middle number will be 3 from the left. Or you can think of it as 3 from the left and 3 from the right.
Therefore, the median of the group of numbers above is 10. Which is close, but not the same as the Mean of those numbers, which is 11.6
You can think of the mean and median as two different ways to calculate the average of a group of numbers.
What Does Mode Mean in Math?
The mode is also a way to review and analyze a group of numbers, however it’s not necessarily an average. The mode is the number in your group of numbers that is repeated most often. Let’s take another example.
What is the mode in the following group of numbers? 1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5
The number repeated most often is the number 2, which is repeated twice. Every other number is only in the group once. Therefore, the mode is 2.
Now, if no number is repeated the most, then there is no mode in the group. Also, if there are two numbers that are repeated the same amount of times, then there are 2 Modes.
Keep these in mind when calculating the mode for your group of numbers.
What Does Range Mean in Math?
The range in mathematics is also a way to analyze a group of numbers. The range of a group of numbers is the difference between the largest and smallest numbers in the group. Let’s take a look at an example.
What is the range in the following group of numbers? 3, 5, 10, 25, 30
Taking the largest number (30) and subtracting the smallest number (3) will give you 27, which is the range of that group of numbers.
This is a fairly easy one to calculate and simple to remember. Just think of what is the range between the largest and smallest number and you’ll always know how to calculate the range.
Conclusion
There are a lot of regular words that mean something different in mathematics. The first step to becoming proficient at math at any level is to understand what the question is asking. When you encounter a question that you don’t know, it’s most likely confusion at what the question is asking for.
Therefore, in the article above we covered some basic terms that you might find in an equation, such as is, of, mean, median, mode, and range. Hopefully this article has been helpful and will help you better understand common math questions and what they are asking for.
