tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21503568.post7431502978879832922..comments2023-11-03T06:32:28.410-04:00Comments on Staring At Empty Pages: That's a mean medianBarry Leibahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14205294935881991457noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21503568.post-12797035428321739582008-07-28T02:54:00.000-04:002008-07-28T02:54:00.000-04:00While a median can be called an average, if someon...While a median <I>can</I> be called an average, if someone says average, they almost universaly mean the arithmetic mean. If I say "what's the average?", that's what people will almost universally think I am asking for.<BR/><BR/>As an example, while one might expect "mean()" to give the mean in Excel, it is in fact given by "average()" (I keep typing mean(), which is more often what works in statistics packages).<BR/><BR/>On the other hand, "mean" can mean <I>all manner of different things</I> - not just the arithmetic mean - there are geometric means, harmonic means and various other forms of generalized means...Efriquehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08526031804261484547noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21503568.post-22730085049265230152008-07-26T20:04:00.000-04:002008-07-26T20:04:00.000-04:00The median can be described (or referred to) as an...The median can be described (or referred to) as an <A HREF="http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/57603.html" REL="nofollow">average</A>.<BR/><BR/>You're right, obviously, that "mean" is not the same as "median," but both can be described using the term "average."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21503568.post-75778171640934888222008-07-13T14:32:00.000-04:002008-07-13T14:32:00.000-04:00This is always a good clarification to make -- dep...This is always a good clarification to make -- depending on the data, sometimes average tells us something interesting, sometimes median tells us something interesting, and sometimes minimum and maximum tell us something. And so on. <BR/><BR/>There's a lot of game-playing with "averages" in economics reporting. Think of what happens to the "average" wealth at a dinner party when Bill Gates shows up!Dalehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10523307255698594696noreply@blogger.com