Re: Whale steak

On Sun, 23 Jul 2006 06:20:20 -0600, "Tedd Jacobs"
<TJacobs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


"Eric Stevens" wrote...
On Sat, 22 Jul 2006 17:30:24 -0600, "Tedd Jacobs"
<TJacobs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


"Eric Stevens" wrote...
On 22 Jul 2006 15:02:42 -0700, "Tom McDonald" <kiltmac@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:


Alan Crozier wrote:
"Tom McDonald" <kiltmac@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1153591865.363471.156530@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

<snip>

"'medium' speed? Do you mean an average speed, the *median*?..."

Good night, Inger. Come back when you have a civil tongue in your
head.


I can give you an answer, Tom. Swedish medel- in compound words can be
translated in a number of ways, one of which is "medium": medelhård
means medium-hard, medeldistans would be middle distance, medelfel is
standard error, medelsvensson means your average Swede,
medelvattenstånd
is mean water level, medelväre means mean value or average.

And, to get to the heart of the matter, medelhastighet is average
speed.

Thanks Alan.

However, as those of us who have taken statistical mathematicum know,
'average' is not a precise term without knowing whether the 'average'
intended is mean, mode or median. Inger did not so specify.

I've always understood average=mean with mode and median being
something different.

eric,
all are measures of central tendency and 'average' is an arbitrary term
which can be applied in different settings to any of the three proper
terms.

Not where I come from.

sweden?


See http://www.answers.com/topic/arithmetic-mean

"ar·ith·met·ic mean (a(r'i(th-me(t'i(k)
n.

The value obtained by dividing the sum of a set of quantities by
the number of quantities in the set. Also called average."

mean is the average used in calculations involving the total sample, not a
single variable. more relevant to the discussion of statistical analysis
than her concept of 'average' (in which "medium" is the wrong term) is a
more important question-- what is the sample size?

Soor Tedd. I won't say you are fudging but you are missing the point
of the discussion. Tom McDonald wrote:

"However, as those of us who have taken statistical mathematicum
know, 'average' is not a precise term without knowing whether the
'average' intended is mean, mode or median. Inger did not so
specify."

and this is relevant to ingers use of 'medium' to mean an arbitrary
"average"? sorry eric, *you* missed the point...

As is clear from my article I was responding to Tom writing:

"However, as those of us who have taken statistical mathematicum
know, 'average' is not a precise term without knowing whether the
'average' intended is mean, mode or median."

I was also indirectly responding to you having written:

"all are measures of central tendency and 'average' is an arbitrary
term which can be applied in different settings to any of the three
proper terms. mean is the average used in calculations involving
the total sample, not a single variable."

I wasn't going to get bogged down in a discussion of the rest of your
paragraph while that simple misunderstanding remained.

Nevertheless, I have to say that while your usage is contrary to
everything I have ever been taught, I have made a Google search and
found http://www.andrews.edu/~calkins/math/webtexts/stat03.htm

"Average most often refers to the arithmetic mean, but is actually
ambiguous and may be used to also refer to the mode, median, or
midrange."

So it looks as though in our own respective worlds we are both
correct.



I have always understood 'average' to be the same as 'arithmetic
mean'. Except in special cases, I have never known it to be either the
mode or the median.

...while you are giving tom and i a lesson on statistics, include inger in
your lecture on what is the correct terminology,...

Why bother. You two had already beaten me to it.



if she is computing the
mean off a sample of n=1... well lets just say there is a problem with
her
concept of 'statistical analysis' in that event. (or more accurately,
there
is a problem with her concept, period.)


...instead of sidestepping the question of relevance of measures of central
tendency to someone who was there when statistics were invented: inger--
what is the sample size?

Good question. Samples of what?



Eric Stevens

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Whale steak
    ... "Eric Stevens" wrote... ... intended is mean, mode or median. ... Inger did not so specify. ... tendency to someone who was there when statistics were invented: ...
    (sci.archaeology)
  • Re: Whale steak
    ... "Eric Stevens" wrote... ... 'average' is not a precise term without knowing whether the 'average' ... intended is mean, mode or median. ... Inger did not so specify. ...
    (sci.archaeology)
  • Re: Whale steak
    ... Mean = Average is the same as the Midway position, ... that would be the median value. ... extrems outside the 'normal' and so on. ... Nice dodge there, Inger. ...
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  • Re: Whale steak
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  • Re: Whale steak
    ... However, as those of us who have taken statistical mathematicum know, ... 'average' is not a precise term without knowing whether the 'average' ... intended is mean, mode or median. ... Inger did not so specify. ...
    (sci.archaeology)