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No. Half of people are not taller than normal, they're taller than average.
by hwillis 7y ago
No. Half of people are not taller than normal, they're taller than average.
- sokoloff 7y agoHalf of people are taller than the median height, not (necessarily) the average height.
- hwillis 7y agoYou mean mean, not average. Mean, median and mode are all averages. Only median splits into equal groups. The point I was trying to make though is that "normal" is not in any way equivalent to any kind of average. It always refers to a range or distribution, even if that range is very small (eg if there is only one normal value, the normal range is the margin of error). 5'8" and 5'10" are both normal heights; you would not say they are taller or shorter than normal. They're shorter/taller than average. Yao Ming is taller than normal. Dwarfism is by definition abnormally small size. Normal can't be the average, because there wouldn't be anything to describe the range of heights between abnormally short and normal height. Also, normally short and normally tall would be the same thing. Makes no sense.