What is the difference between mean and median?

In the context of data science, here are the differences given between mean vs median:-

Mean

The mean is also known as the average. It is calculated by summing up all the given elements in a dataset and then dividing by the total number of values.

Median

The median is often called the middle value of a particular dataset. However, it needs to be arranged in ascending or descending order. If there is an even number of elements then there would be the median which is middle in the set.

In the context of your particular survey, the mean recovery time might be influenced by a few patients. This strange thing can occur due to various factors such as the complexities during surgery, the health system of the patient, etc. If the mean and median recovery times are different, then it would mean that the distribution of the recovery time is not symmetrical and it may be skewed by outliers.

Here is a Python script given of how you can calculate the mean and median recovery times for the patient undergoing the surgical procedure:-

Import numpy as np
# Sample recovery time data (replace with actual data)
Recovery_times = [4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100]
# Calculate mean and median recovery times
Mean_recovery_time = np.mean(recovery_times)
Median_recovery_time = np.median(recovery_times)
Print(“Mean recovery time:”, mean_recovery_time)
Print(“Median recovery time:”, median_recovery_time)