w d allen seems not to be happy with the feedback that a few of us sent, in
response to his (apparent) blasting of "educators" and their understanding
of the median ...
sorry ...
but, as don pointed out ... you provided NO context whatsoever in your
blast ... as to what was said when, and by whom ... so, i think the
comments you got were fair and sensible
you also point to a url below ... that gives a simple way to find the
median ... but, you also say that statisticians link this to a population
... but, i see NO mention whatsoever in this link to populations, samples,
etc. etc.
thus, your point about that seems irrelevant
no statistician i know links the definition of the median (or the mean or
the mode) to THE population ... as opposed to some sample of data ... if
that is the case, please provide some references on that point ... the url
below helps not one bit
the link says the following:
A. ----> The median value is the middle value in a set of values. Half of
all values are smaller than the median value and half are larger.
B. ----> When the data set contains an odd (uneven) set of numbers, the
middle value is the median value. When the data set contains an even set of
numbers, the middle two numbers are added and the sum is divided by two.
That number is the median value.
A is a definition for the median ... but B is a PROCEDURE or an AGREEMENT
on how we should locate the median ... A and B are not the same
let's say i have data 10, 8, 6, 3, 2, 2 ... and, i tell you that the median
is 5 ... does that satisfy A ... the definition of the median? YES ... what
about 4 or 5.3 or 3.9?? well, they all satisfy that definition too ... ANY
value that falls between what you consider to be the upper limit of the
lower of the two middle values and the lower limit of the larger of the two
values ... satisfies that definition
WHERE DOES B COME IN THEN? stat folks have just come to an agreement that
when we have cases where the median will fall between 2 values ... and
there is "space" between the two values ... that we will average the two
values and CALL it the median ... this is done by convention ... and has
nothing to do with the definition of the median ...
At 11:34 AM 6/1/01 -0700, W. D. Allen Sr. wrote:
>"A couple of colleagues have already pointed out how the statement you so
>scornfully cite might in fact be true; ...".
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