Math: Define average for me

[Ns1]

=sum()/count()

 

[Gibson486]

The ^ is a visual way of referencing the post above the current one.

forget the visual...he needs a mathematical representation of referencing the above post. He is in the zone now.

 

[IronWing]

forget the visual...he needs a mathematical representation of referencing the above post. He is in the zone now.

post(ni-1)

 

[Mike Gayner]

How does someone get through high school without knowing this?

 

[OCGuy]

Did I mention the average person has one testicle?

 

[Albatross]

Arithmetic,geometric and harmonic mean?

 

[crownjules]

Arithmetic,geometric and harmonic mean?

Do you read before you post?

 

[Albatross]

Do you read before you post?

Ooops.

 

[Dr. Zaus]

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

Mean median and mode are measures of central tendency. The question then becomes what does "average" express when said. While the dictionary does allow for other measures of central tendency; most people just intend mean.

said that average meant mean, median or mode

Any measure of central tendency could be called average.

Tell him he is wrong because taking the average of the mode of the upper and lower quartile is ALSO "average"; which is something I just invented: ask him if he's got the creativity to create his own measure of central tendency :-D

 

[ioni]

Average and Mean are the same thing. Average == Mean.

 

[zebano]

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.

This is absolutely true, but context still matters. For instance, would you blink an eye if someone told you the average person has 2 legs? Clearly due to the few people with 1 or even 0 legs they are either rounding generously or using a median.

 

[Paratus]

Did I mention the average person has one testicle?

I lol'd

 

[slayer202]

your coworker is a tool, and you just caught, and spread, the toolness

 

[brblx]

average is mean. jesus fucking christ. dictionary.

 

[Fayd]

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.

average refers to arithmetic mean.

median and mode are not "averages". they're just other measures that describe a population.

 

[slayer202]

 

[sactoking]

Did I mention the average person has one testicle?

If you round off/down.

A more appropriate comment would be to say "The average man does not have two testicles".

 

[OCGuy]

If you round off/down.

A more appropriate comment would be to say "The average man does not have two testicles".

My statement wasn't including just men.

 

[RPD]

My statement wasn't including just men.

Which was part of the joke...

 

[mpo]

average refers to arithmetic mean.

I think the average (aka typical) person agrees with you. Of course, in this context, average is referring to mode, not mean. For most categorical data, people use mode when they are thinking of averages. If you have taken a survey class, you've encountered the perils of coding and analyzing categorical data--when asked a preference between yellow and blue, everyone chooses green. I'm sure you see the problem there.

median and mode are not "averages". they're just other measures that describe a population.

As described above, the average person has less than 10 fingers, 10 toes, 2 arms, 2 legs, 2 eyes, and 1 nose. Yet very few people are missing a finger, toe, leg, eye, or their nose.

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

This is absolutely true, but context still matters. For instance, would you blink an eye if someone told you the average person has 2 legs? Clearly due to the few people with 1 or even 0 legs they are either rounding generously or using a median.

There is a joke in there somewhere.

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

average is mean. jesus fucking christ. dictionary.

That argument was not good enough for him. Seriosuly. Even the specific definition that said add up and divide.

 

[brblx]

well, he's dumb.

this isn't an interpretation thing. if you look up 'mean' and 'average,' i'm sure there is an entry for each that says something about 'in math,' as a description of arimethic mean (AVERAGE). punch your friend in the face and get a new friend.

 

[Dr. Zaus]

That argument was not good enough for him. Seriosuly. Even the specific definition that said add up and divide.

This is not what the meriam webster dictionary says.

it says that anything that is meant to be representative, such as mean median and mode, can be called the average.

from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/average

1a : a single value (as a mean, mode, or median) that summarizes or represents the general significance of a set of unequal values


Any measure of central tendency could be called average.

Tell him he is wrong because taking the average of the mode of the upper and lower quartile is ALSO "average"; which is something I just invented: ask him if he's got the creativity to create his own measure of central tendency :-D

 

[brblx]

okay, now look up mean, median, and mode.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/median
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mode

whoops neither of those indicate mathematical average.

SMACK HIS FACE.