Re: Box Plots--Acceptance?

Richard Ulrich <Rich.Ulrich@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

[snip]

> It seemed non-controversial to point out that mathematicians
> use the word "mean" in a more general way, but not the
> word "average" - harmonic mean, geometric mean, root
> mean square.
>
> As another extension, the 'average' is what minimizes the
> squared deviations, the median minimizes the absolute
> deviations, and the mode minimizes the count of deviations
> (from grouped values).

To unify these ideas,

sum = \Sigma_k | x_k - m |^n

The mean is the value of m which minimizes sum for n = 2. The median
is the value of m which minimizes the sum for n = 1. The mode is the
value of m which minimizes the sum in the limit that n -> 0.

[snip]

Scott
--
Scott Hemphill hemphill@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"This isn't flying. This is falling, with style." -- Buzz Lightyear
.

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