Hi Mike. Yes I do find percentiles distastefull. They are sensitive to small
variations in the data. They are discontinuous functions of the data. They are
complicatedly defined. They have ugly algebraic properties. (The median of a
sum is not the sum of the medians). I prefer the mean value and the standard
deviation and the higher cumulants to represent the distribution. They are
insensitive to small variations in the data. They are analytic functions of the
data. They are simply defined. They have simple algebraic properties. (the mean
of a sum is the sum of the means).
- Bo
>________________________________
> Fra: Mike Day <mike_liz....@tiscali.co.uk>
>Til: programm...@jsoftware.com
>Sendt: 12:27 mandag den 11. marts 2013
>Emne: Re: [Jprogramming] Find the median
>
>Best not to take this too far in Jprogramming, but why "useless"? Do
>you find percentiles and the like distasteful too? They're very useful
>for examining empirical distributions, though some care is needed with
>interval bounds....
>
>Mike
>
>On 11/03/2013 7:08 AM, Bo Jacoby wrote:
>> No, Kip. The median is a useless concept. It should not be implemented.
>> :) Bo.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>> ________________________________
>>> Fra: km <k...@math.uh.edu>
>>> Til: "programm...@jsoftware.com" <programm...@jsoftware.com>
>>> Sendt: 23:29 søndag den 10. marts 2013
>>> Emne: [Jprogramming] Find the median
>>>
>>> The median of list 1 2 2 4 6 is 2 ("middle" value of sorted list), the
>>> median of 2 2 4 6 is 3 (average of two "middle" values). Write a verb to
>>> find the median of a sorted list of numbers.
>>>
>>> --Kip Murray
>>>
>>> Sent from my iPad
>>>
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