when finding the average, when would we use the median instead of the mean?

Question

I need two examples. Here's one that doesn't count in case you are confused: Household income. The few extremely wealthy people would be dropped because that would skew the data of the average wealth of an American person. Now I need 2 more examples...

Answer 1

The median is useful whenever you have a dataset with a few outliers and the rest of the data has a nice spread.

So two other examples could be:
-Measuring the "average" height of students at a particular high school. Since there are a few very tall people (such as myself) the skew the mean to be higher than expected.

-Measuring the "average" IQ of a particular group. Since there are likely some people with IQ's out of the ordinary (too high or too low) you may not want to use the mean.

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

The average, the mean, is the value resulting from the equal distribution of the sum of the values of all members in the set by dividing the sum by the number of members.

In sets containing an odd number of data members, the median is the value of the member where 50% of the remaining members have values above and 50% of the remaining members have values below that of the member in question. In sets containing an even number of members, the median value is the average value of the two central members.

The median is more useful in those circumstances where the distribution is skewed in one direction or other. The average or mean works well when there is more normal distribution curve.

Student grades would be an example. If most of the class has done poorly (between 50 and 70), but say six of the twenty were perfect at 100%, the high scorers would tent to pull up the class average. Here, the median would probably be a more accurate indication of the classes performance.

World GNP would be another. Higher prosperity countries would tend to skew the average (mean) and the median would give a better indication of the true level of GNP per country.

Answer 3

an average and a mean are synonyms... they mean the same thing. The median is simply the middlemost figure of a set. For example. the median in the set of 1 3 4 8 9 is 4, however the matematical mean (average) of the set is 5.

Answer 4

The median and the mean are 2 different things. The average is just another word for the mean. You find the mean (average) by adding up all the numbers and then dividing by the quantity of numbers that you added.

The median is obtained by putting your numbers in order then choosing the number that is in the middle. This means there will be just as many numbers less than your median as there is greater than your median

Answer 5

Test scores could be another one. If one person aces the exam and most people don't, the highest score will skew the average. Also, this could be applied to batting averages-you have a Barry Bonds that hits tons of homers, but the rest of the team plays well within the league average.

Does that work for you?

Answer 6

Home prices, specifically in a certain town. I looked in a town in CT. The median price was extremely skewed because there is a huge retirement villiage there. I looked at the median sales price and it skewed the results considerably.

Answer 7

1. The class earns a pizza party if the median test score is over 80%. (A few very high or very low scores are not representative of the class effort.)

2. The lunch counter is set to accomodate the median height of the diners. (The greatest number of diners will be convenienced.) Having said this, I should add that special accomodation need be made for disabled diners.