Interesting
I wonder how far this extends? Could make an interesting paper in Ed Psych or something. e.g I think most adults could find the exact average of 2 numbers where the differnce is 2. How many could do it if the difference were 4? 3? 6? 10? My bet would be that a diff. of 10 would be easier for many than a diff. of 4, and that 3 would be much harder.
I think before we get too "excited" about all this ... we need to ask ... why would anyone really want someone to know the average of two numbers?
Person X makes $20,000 a year and person Y makes $200,000 a year ... so, the "average" person makes $110,000 per year ... which is beyond belief for X and an insult to Y ... is this kind of information useful? Or, even if X made $20,000 and Y made $21,000 ... know this average is rather useless too.
If we want to have some idea about how a person comes up with an "average" value (how they think it through, how they "do the math"), lets use a reasonable number of values so that the average makes some sense.
Dennis Roberts
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/d/m/dmr/droberts.htm
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