In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Wuensch, Karl L <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >Well now, if the results are really normally distributed (or distributed >otherwise but symmetrically), what is the difference between the mean and >the median? Nothing.
>If you are constructing confidence intervals or testing hypothesis, you may >prefer techniques designed for means, as estimators of means are typically >more efficient than are estimators of medians. This may or may not be the case. For the case of distributions with finite variances and finite positive densities at unique medians, their efficiencies are comparable, and in general, one would have to compute to decide which is more efficient. In the case of symmetric unimodal distributions, if only one statistic is to be provided, the median is likely to be less sensitive to the form, as it does not depend on the tails. If either of the conditions stated is false, the efficiencies are not likely to be comparable. -- This address is for information only. I do not claim that these views are those of the Statistics Department or of Purdue University. Herman Rubin, Deptartment of Statistics, Purdue University [EMAIL PROTECTED] Phone: (765)494-6054 FAX: (765)494-0558 . . ================================================================= Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at: . http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ . =================================================================
