What is your favourite average?

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Well?
Mode, Median or Mean?

― Pete (Pete), Friday, 21 May 2004 09:53 (twenty-two years ago)

all depends on the data.

― ken c (ken c), Friday, 21 May 2004 09:56 (twenty-two years ago)

but mostly mean. esp when it's weighted

― ken c (ken c), Friday, 21 May 2004 09:56 (twenty-two years ago)

it's got to be Mean.

(mainly as my addled brane can no longer remember how to do median or mode any more...)

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Friday, 21 May 2004 09:57 (twenty-two years ago)

keep off median

i am quite mean these days

― stevem (blueski), Friday, 21 May 2004 09:58 (twenty-two years ago)

median = the number in the exact middle or if string is even-numbered then the either side added togther and halved no?

mode = number that occurs most often or closest to that

― stevem (blueski), Friday, 21 May 2004 09:59 (twenty-two years ago)

Mean. No contest.

n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-nineteen

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Friday, 21 May 2004 10:07 (twenty-two years ago)

For those whose GCSE maths is a bit rusty:

Mean = what you get by adding n values together and then dividing by n

The mean of (10,10,30,40,50) is 140/5 = 28

Median = the middle value in an ordered list of n values.

The median of (10,10,30,40,50) = 30

Mode = the most frequent value.

The mode of (10,10,30,40,50) = 10

― Ricardo (RickyT), Friday, 21 May 2004 10:07 (twenty-two years ago)


2 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 5 6 7 28
| mode    |
              ^ medianmean = (2 + 2 + 2 + 2+...+28 ) / 15 = 4.866666
― ken c (ken c), Friday, 21 May 2004 10:08 (twenty-two years ago)

oops forgot to close tag

― ken c (ken c), Friday, 21 May 2004 10:08 (twenty-two years ago)

what's the mean called that you ignore the smallest and largest n% of numbers?

― ken c (ken c), Friday, 21 May 2004 10:09 (twenty-two years ago)

(like in gymnastics and iceskating?)

― ken c (ken c), Friday, 21 May 2004 10:10 (twenty-two years ago)

The rubbish-so-called-average-cheating-bastard-not-mean-at-all?

― Ricardo (RickyT), Friday, 21 May 2004 10:10 (twenty-two years ago)

When I was a kid I would sometimes find the mean, median and mode, then find the mean and median (mode would be silly) of those three numbers then find the mean of those two, to arrive at THE BEST AVERAGE.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 21 May 2004 10:11 (twenty-two years ago)

no one has mentioned the Ukranian woman with 63 babies!

― jel -- (jel), Friday, 21 May 2004 15:01 (twenty-two years ago)

.406

― mookieproof (mookieproof), Friday, 21 May 2004 15:09 (twenty-two years ago)

when I was a student in Bristol, I had to do stats course in my first year. In an act of sadistic timetabling, this was scheduled to occupy the whole of Friday afternoon. In the first lecture of the course, the lecturer kept referring to "measures of central tendency". we were all looking round, confused. What were they? Then half way thru the lecturer he told us what they were - the Mean, Median and Mode!

― MarkH (MarkH), Friday, 21 May 2004 18:57 (twenty-two years ago)

I think the Law of Averages must rule this thread.

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 21 May 2004 18:58 (twenty-two years ago)

...the stats course (in my first post on the subject, I almost typed 'curse') was a complete nightmare btw. I think the only light relief and - it wasn't *that* light - was when the lecturer drew some little ducks in a shooting gallery on the blackboard to show how Precision and Accuracy are not the same thing....

― MarkH (MarkH), Friday, 21 May 2004 19:00 (twenty-two years ago)

or now that I think of it, Ted Williams in 1941 to thread.

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 21 May 2004 19:05 (twenty-two years ago)

it was some consolation to meet one of the demonstrators years later who told me that the Bristol Geography stats course was one of the hardest in the country. When we first met that time, he recognised me but I didn't recognise him - scary when he had 70 faces to remember. DV won't find this fact at all surprising.

Am I right in thinking that there are some ranges of numbers for which there simply isn't a mode. If your dataset is 1 2 3 4 5 then no number is more frequent than any other so there's no mode, right?

― MarkH (MarkH), Friday, 21 May 2004 19:11 (twenty-two years ago)

hstencil, mookieproof beat you to it!

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 21 May 2004 19:33 (twenty-two years ago)

I am slow, just like nickalicious.

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 21 May 2004 19:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Z-score BITCHES!!

― oops (Oops), Friday, 21 May 2004 19:36 (twenty-two years ago)

OPS is where it's at you statistical dinorsaurs.

― Leeefuse 73 (Leee), Friday, 21 May 2004 19:53 (twenty-two years ago)

whatever, MONEYBALL NERD.

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 21 May 2004 19:54 (twenty-two years ago)

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