GENEALOGY-DNA-L Archives

Archiver > GENEALOGY-DNA > 2005-07 > 1120348721


From: "Glen Todd" <>
Subject: RE: [DNA] Modal
Date: Sat, 2 Jul 2005 17:58:41 -0600
In-Reply-To: <002d01c57f54$4743c010$5a579045@Ken1>


> Yes, remind us what the teacher told us --- I know what
> average is, then there was the thing for which 1/2 were
> above and 1/2 below, and then what?

Average is the familiar "add them all up and divide by the number of items".
Mean (or median) is the one where half of your data points are above and
half are below. Mode is the one that we use here; the most common value.
Mode can NOT have a value that isn't represented in the set of data points.
Average most definitely can. Median is trickier, and depends on whether
you've got an odd or even number both of data points and of unique values.

Glen

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