Average/Median

[The Mad Rapper]

Can someone please explain the difference between average and median? Particularly as it applies to house prices for example.

TIA.

 

[Jokester]

Average is the sum of all house prices, divided by the number of houses. Median is the value of the house price that is in the middle, if you listed all the house prices from left to right in increasing value.

 

[Nix]

http://math.about.com/library/weekly/aa020502a.htm

 

[Johnny Girth]

Average covers median, mean and mode.

Mode = most often occurring result.
Median = line them all up and pick the one in the middle.
Mean = find the total value and divide by the number of entries.

 

[dowie]

median is a type of average, just as mean and mode are

in this context 'average' price probably means the 'mean' price - i.e. sum of all the house prices divided by the number of houses

median is the middle price

edit - Doh! someone has beaten me to it

 

[Vonhelmet]

Average covers median, mean and mode.

Mode = most often occurring result.
Median = line them all up and pick the one in the middle.
Mean = find the total value and divide by the number of entries.

Clear, concise, correct.

 

[Brum Man]

Median = line them all up and pick the one in the middle.

Or take the average of the two middle values in where the number of values are even.

 

[Tefal]

Someone failed maths

 

[neil3k]

Im astonished.

 

[[TR]SweetSpotOz]

.

 

[Nitefly]

OP, you may be wondering what on earth is the point with the median. Well, the median is less prone to extreme values.

Take the numbers:
56, 89, 73, 64, 68

Mean: 70 Median: 68

Now if we seriously increase one of the values:
56, 210, 73, 64, 68

Mean: 94.2 Median: 68

The mean doesn't really represent the 'average' of this set of numbers because the value of 210 is skewing the results. However,the median remains unchanged.

Just in case you wanted to know

 

[Dave M]

Imagine you didn't get taught that in school. How would you know?

Imagine you got taught in school 20 years ago and haven't needed to use that knowledge since. How would you know?

Ask people around you - they won't know either. Unless you are doing a maths degree.

You can't be serious? I learned the 3 types of average when I was a nipper, perhaps not primary school but certainly before GCSE.

 

[[TR]SweetSpotOz]

.

 

[Nitefly]

You are amazing.

I learned all three when I was 9 in school. I think its fairly common knowledge.

 

[Psyk]

Ask people around you - they won't know either. Unless you are doing a maths degree.

I'd have thought knowing what the mean and median are is required knowledge for nearly all degrees except maybe the really artsy ones.

 

[Tefal]

You can't be serious? I learned the 3 types of average when I was a nipper, perhaps not primary school but certainly before GCSE.

was year 5 maths for me

 

[manoz]

Average covers median, mean and mode.

Mode = most often occurring result.
Median = line them all up and pick the one in the middle.
Mean = find the total value and divide by the number of entries.

Isn't there another one that doesn't begin with M. I forgets, didn't like A-Level statistics very much.

 

[Vixen]

You can't be serious? I learned the 3 types of average when I was a nipper, perhaps not primary school but certainly before GCSE.

I don't think it's in the Scottish curriculum. It's certainly not something I was taught at school until at least higher, if not advanced higher.

 

[[TR]SweetSpotOz]

.

 

[Psyk]

OK fair enough everyone should know what the mean is.

I'm in my final year and I doubt many of my mates (at all) could tell what the median is.

Yeah I guess median is less commonly used than the mean.