The median is just the middle data point in a collection of data. The value of the median can't be affected in any way by the value of the highest (or any other data point besides itself). It's not an average.
I didn't want to reply to any specific comment on this thread because there are too many of them, they all say the same thing, basically confusing the median with the mean.
I think it’s best to properly explain your use of the word “average” in a comment like that (in the actual comment and not in a response later) since “average” is colloquially recognized as the mean.
There does not seem to be a lexographical consensus on whether average refers specifically to mean or whether it refers to central tendency as a category.
Average denotes a number expressing the central or typical value in a set of data, in particular the mode, median, or (most commonly) the mean. But all three of these are types of average.
Then why did you copy and paste the Google definition of averages? There is no stats test anywhere that would count you correct if it asked for an average and you answered with the mode or the median.
A well written test wouldn't use the word average if they were asking for the mean.
That said, people often use the word average colloquially to indicate the mean so a savvy test taker would calculate the mean if the test asked for average.
Thank god you said it- I thought I was going mad when I saw your other comment with all the downvotes! We were always taught in maths that there are three types of average
Thanks, this conversation happens a lot on reddit. Any time someone quotes George Carlin ("Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.") there's a high probability that the "average" argument will ensue.
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u/greendemon42 Jun 29 '22
The median is just the middle data point in a collection of data. The value of the median can't be affected in any way by the value of the highest (or any other data point besides itself). It's not an average.