In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Andy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >Why do statistics textbooks discuss "mode" as a measure of centrality? >I've never seen it used in statistical analyses, and there are obvious >difficulties in defining it (mainly deciding how large to make the >histogram's bins). So why do they insist on teaching it?
Ancient history. For a symmetric unimodal distribution, it is the same, but it is generally difficult to estimate. In fact, I even object to calling these "measures of central tendency". They are parameters of the distribution, and should be thought of that way. -- This address is for information only. I do not claim that these views are those of the Statistics Department or of Purdue University. Herman Rubin, Department of Statistics, Purdue University [EMAIL PROTECTED] Phone: (765)494-6054 FAX: (765)494-0558 . . ================================================================= Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at: . http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ . =================================================================
