4 ms·
You’re thinking of median, not average, but your question stands.
by maxaf 7y ago
You’re thinking of median, not average, but your question stands.
- DaiPlusPlus 7y agoThe arithmetic mean (I.e. the average) is the 50th-percentile (I.e. the median) in a normal distribution. The question absolutely stands - unless pilot ability is not a normal-distribution.
- Y_Y 7y agoSince there is a long training/weeding-out process I would expect the distribution would be truncated normal, with some cutoff to graduate plane school. If this bar is low then the distribution will still be roughly normal, but if it's near or about the mean (does anyone have the fail rates?) then the distribution can look a lot different, e.g. one-sided normal, or power-law.
- Lewton 7y agoIn anything with a lower bound (passing to become a pilot) the distribution can be heavily skewed (ie cutting off the bottom 20% of a normal distribution) Which means that more than half would be below average!
- Ensorceled 7y agoWhy would a competitive, high skilled role with aggressive disqualification requirements be anywhere close to a normal-distribution?
- chrisseaton 7y agoMedian and mean are both averages, and there are other types of averages. Average by itself doesn’t imply mean. And of course it’s median - how can you have a mean of something discrete like group of people?
- colanderman 7y ago"Average" is a blanket term which includes median: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Average https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Average