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Math: Define average for me

IHateMyJob2004

IHateMyJob2004

Lifer
Someone just broke my brain. How do you define average? I will update this thread later with what I was told. I want everyone elses unbiased opinion on this.

Calculate the average of:
1,2,3,12,12

UPDATED :
The other party said that average meant mean, median or mode. That those 3 things are all defintions of average.
 
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Average usually is used to indicate the univariant mean. Given a series of n values of x, the mean is the sum of the values of x divided by n.

mean = SUM(x)/n
 
^ beat me to it. Median and average/mean aren't the same thing.
 
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IHateMyJob2004 said:
OK, that is one answer. A co-worker says there are two other formulas.
Click to expand...

Co-worker is either an idiot, or a mathematician.

The average is always the sum of numbers divided by the count of the numbers. I can assure that the excel function does not have more than one way to calculate the sum.

What are the answers provided by the co-worker?
 
The mean, median and mode are all technically averages; when the word average is used on it's own, it is most often used to signify the mean average. If someone asked me to find the average of a set of numbers, I would assume they meant the mean.
 
FirNaTine said:
That would be the mean.

Also median would be 3 (half above and half below). Used to minimize effects of outliers on the mean.

12 would be the mode. The value that occurs most frequently.
Click to expand...

THIS IS IT! But I have never referred to someone saying that mode and median as being the definitions of average.
 
I peaked at wiki. The only other thing is that he's breaking down the different types of mean (average) - arithmetic (your usual average), geometric, and harmonic. But that's really splitting hairs.

e;fb
 
mvbighead said:
Actually, just wiki'd and must say I am shocked:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean#Arithmetic_mean_.28AM.29

There are each of arithmetic, geometric, and harmonic means. Given a sample set of values, each calculates a different mean. I am not a mathematician, so the shit is greek to me.

EDIT: Each does use the word average in their definition... hmmm.
Click to expand...

Yes, I found that also. My co-worker was referring to mean, median and mode though. All defintions of average.
 
crownjules said:
I peaked at wiki. The only other thing is that he's breaking down the different types of mean (average) - arithmetic (your usual average), geometric, and harmonic. But that's really splitting hairs.

e;fb
Click to expand...

Nope, not the hairs he was splitting.

I did more looking up of things. There is something called central tendancy. That is mean, median and mode.

But even wikipeida presents it as kind of a grey area.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Average

But hte word average does not appear once on this page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median
 
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