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| Thread ID: 85378 | 2007-12-08 07:34:00 | What does Average mean? | martynz (5445) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 619180 | 2007-12-08 07:34:00 | Clearly the authors of this report don't know. "The Education Ministry published the first part yesterday of an international adult literacy report that tested 7000 New Zealanders aged 16 to 64 last year on their ability to read and interpret written tasks and instructions. Though the Adult Literacy and Life Skills survey showed literacy skills had improved in the past decade, 43 per cent of Kiwi adults still had poor or below-average literacy ability. According to the study, 14 per cent of respondents, representing 380,000 adults, were in the lowest ability level. A further 29 per cent, representing 760,000 adults, were at the next lowest level, meaning they could deal with simply, clearly laid-out material, if tasks were not too complex. The remaining 57 per cent had good or better-than-average literacy skills." Martynz |
martynz (5445) | ||
| 619181 | 2007-12-09 00:53:00 | Ahhh but thats where you are wrong. An unusually high number of extreme results can skew the average. It is not necessary to have 50% above and 50% below. If you were talking median, then you would be correct. | wotz (335) | ||
| 619182 | 2007-12-09 01:02:00 | Average.... hmmm If my salary is $20,000 p.a. and my neighbour is on $120,000 p.a. then our average income is $70,000 p.a. Averages, like statistics, can be terribly skewed. Ken |
kenj (9738) | ||
| 619183 | 2007-12-09 02:04:00 | Ahhh but thats where you are wrong. An unusually high number of extreme results can skew the average. It is not necessary to have 50% above and 50% below. If you were talking median, then you would be correct. I'm wrong? What did I say? I was quoting from a report in the DomPost. I have a gut feeling that the author/s would like everybody to do better than average. Martynz |
martynz (5445) | ||
| 619184 | 2007-12-09 02:07:00 | Statistics prove that 50% of all averages are just average?? Ken |
kenj (9738) | ||
| 619185 | 2007-12-09 03:11:00 | Ahhh but thats where you are wrong. An unusually high number of extreme results can skew the average. It is not necessary to have 50% above and 50% below. If you were talking median, then you would be correct. For example, if I had 2, 3 and 10, the average is 5, but the median is 3. |
pcuser42 (130) | ||
| 619186 | 2007-12-09 03:12:00 | For example, if I had 2, 3 and 10, the average is 5, but the median is 3. And the 'mean' is 5. The mean is the same as average. |
robbyp (2751) | ||
| 619187 | 2007-12-09 03:36:00 | Statistics prove that 50% of all averages are just average?? KenOne would think that 100% of all averages were average.. no? |
Myth (110) | ||
| 619188 | 2007-12-09 04:47:00 | One would think that 100% of all averages were average.. no? I would have thought that if one was at 100% there would not be an average to average out???? Am I loopy??? Ken :D |
kenj (9738) | ||
| 619189 | 2007-12-09 10:17:00 | reminds me of a classic line on an aussie new channel about the drought and the threat of no water allocations: there is a 50% chance of below average rainfall |
motorbyclist (188) | ||
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