3 ms·
Most people might be better than the average driver, but not better than the typical (median) driver (same goes for legs). I'd say that the typical is a better
by VMG 14y ago
Most people might be better than the average driver, but not better than the typical (median) driver (same goes for legs).
I'd say that the typical is a better reference point than the average, since the counter-intuitive effects you describe disappear, and the reference point "1,9999995 legs / person" is pretty useless.
- gosub 14y agoWouldn't the typical driver be the mode, not the median?
- lindenr 14y agoI'd say it depends. Even "average" can be several different things depending on your definitions. More precise than "average" is "mean", and even better than that is the "arithmetic mean". Typical is typical in its ability to be misunderstood.
- pcopley 14y agoI think in the example above he means mode in that people have 2 legs more often than they have any other number of legs.
- dredmorbius 14y ago"Average" is a term which can be claimed by the arithmetic mean (the word you're confusing it with), the median (midpoint value), or mode (most frequently occurring value).