On Sat, Aug 08, 2009 at 03:38:52AM -0700, Keith Whaley wrote: > Igor Roshchin wrote: >> I hear people loughing at this phrase and its variations. >> In principal, there is nothing contradictory in the statement itself. >> It is clear to everybody who knows the basics of statistics (at the >> level of definition of "average", which for a distribution is the same >> as an arithmetic mean). >> >> As a matter of fact, depending on the distribution you can get any >> number (percentage) X , 0% < X < 100% that can be above (or below) >> average. If it is unclear, a simple example can demonstrate it. >> Imagine in a class of 100 students, 99 students getting 100% score, >> and one student getting a smaller score, say, 99%. >> 99% of students will have their score above average, because average >> will be below 100%. >> >> One should not mix average (arithmetic mean) and median. >> >> Igor > > Well stated, Igor! Thanks... > > keith whaley
Anyone who knows the basics of statistics should also be well aware of the fact that in the real world (rather than in some hypothetical exercise) actual distributions generally look pretty similar - tending to the "normal" distribution (in both the mathematical and colloquial sense of the word). -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
