And lo on Sun, 06 Jul 2008 21:23:15 +0100, Chambers
<ben### [at] pacificwebguycom> did spake, saying:

> Eero Ahonen wrote:
>> So... If we have 4 men, with intelligences 1, 8, 9 and 9, the average  
>> is (1+8+9+9)/4=6,75, so 75% of men are more intelligent than average  
>> person (who, if he existed, would be over 6 times as intelligent as the  
>> dumpest one).
>
> I usually drop the outliers (top and bottom quartiles) first.  That  
> would leave us with (8+9)/2=8.5 average, with an even 50% split :)

Yeah or spot that for a 0-10 range the mean is 6.75 and the median is 8.5
and think 'hmm I've got some odd data need the bottom end of the range I
need to look at'. It's like the old chestnut of 4 people in a room earn
£25,000 each and in walks someone who earns that combined. The average  
jumps to £40k while the median stays at £25k, which is the more accurate  
figure?

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

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