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An average (or mean value) is likely to give you an estimate of the ‘true’ value. If you measure the length of a piece of string four times, and you obtain values of 6.2 cm, 6.1 cm, 6.3 cm and 6.2 cm, the average (or mean) measurement of the length of string is (6.2 + 6.1 + 6.3 + 6.2) ÷ 4 = 6.2cm. It is only an estimate because your measuring instruments might be giving you a false reading in some way, or other variables might have affected what you were trying to measure.