George L. McDowell, Jr. wrote:
> We use the term "mean" to describe the time shown
> by man-made chronometers. I suggest that this is
> an incorrect use of the English word (and an
> incorrect use of words in other languages which
> have the same meaning as 'mean' has in English).
> I think the proper word is "average." I say this
> because I think that the average time it takes the
> earth to rotate each day beneath the sun from one
> point in its orbit to the same point approximately
> a year later is 24 hours, and that the mean of the
> times it takes the earth to so rotate is not
> relevant to a determination of the length of a
> day. Is my thinking correct or incorrect? Thanks.
My opinion as to difference between "mean" and "average" is irrelevant
because I am nota native speaker and certain subtilities may very well
escape my blunt understanding of the
language.
As far as Portuguese is concerned, I think we would use "média" (from
Latin "medium"/"media"
English "mean") for both terms.
The caliber of the students . . . has gone from mediocre to above
average == "o calibre dos estudantes... passou
de medíocre para acima da *média*"
"Greenwich mean time" -- "hora *média* de Greenwich"
I don't think in English both terms can be used interchangeably in
general, but it seems to
me that when they refer to operations similar or analog to adding
numbers together and
than divinding the result both terms mean (no pun intended) the same
thing.
Like in "the average value of a set of number", or "the mean value of a
set of number",
On the other hand, in Portuguese it doesn't seem we have this kind of
problem. We have
a single word both for "average" and "mean".
Gostaria de ouvir a opinião de meus colegas portugueses e brasileiros
(ou outros que falem
português). Temos outra palavra para traduzir "average" e "mean" no
contexto dado?
Claro, temos coisas como "proporção", "regular", "rateio" que podem
eventualmente ser usados
(um aluno "regular" por um aluno "médio", etc.), mas penso que não vem
ao caso.
Abraços
- fernando
--
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Fernando Cabral Padrao iX Sistemas Abertos
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