3 ms·
This is a worthy posting, particularly as so much becomes iterative statistics in "A.I." clothing. The two old (slightly hackneyed) counter-examples which are
by theophrastus 7y ago
This is a worthy posting, particularly as so much becomes iterative statistics in "A.I." clothing. The two old (slightly hackneyed) counter-examples which are popular in lectures about measures of the central tendency are:
- One is trying to get a sense of the common sort of income in a room and then Bill Gates wanders in. Suddenly the average income becomes an amount which no one experiences.
- What is the average number of testicles in the human population? That computed central tendency is quite rare.
- kqr 7y agoThe second one doesn't seem that bad to me. The number can still be used to answer common questions like, "Assuming it takes 10 seconds to tickle a testicle, how long do I have to tickle testicles if I want to tickle every testicle in my apartment complex." Sure, you have to know what the mean means, but it's still a useful number. Your first example is more indicative of the problem, IMO.