By: Gary Miller

Gary Miller — Mon, 16 Dec 2019 09:15:53 +0000

Regarding Statistical Formula #2: Median, one way to think about it is to consider a team of rowers, say eight men and a coxswain to steer, who need to carry the “eight” (8-person scull) to the shore. Imagine that they are carrying it on their shoulders, except the cox is shorter and lighter, and her shoulders aren’t high enough. She has the vital steering and time-keeping jobs and doesn’t need lots of muscle to row.

If you wondered what the average weight is, you’d add them all up and divide by nine, but the answer would be skewed low by the cox, who is smaller in stature.

Whereas, if the nine people were carrying the boat in order of heaviest at the back, to lightest at the front, with the cox leading the way, the median value would be the weight of the person in the middle of the line. As a bonus, the hull of the boat would indicate a trendline of the rowers’ heights! 😃

By: shekhar

shekhar — Thu, 12 Dec 2019 16:54:07 +0000

Great article.
Scores A Scores B
47 47
48 48
49 49
50 50
52 88
average 49.2 56.4
median 49 49
std dev 1.92 17.70

We have scores of two batches, A and B.
All students score similar except one student.
This change in one score , makes a significant change in standard deviations of both batches score, some change in average , while no change in median.

A number which is unusually different from others, is considered as outlier. Averages and standard deviations are impacted by outlier whereas median is not impacted by outliers.

Comments on: Four Stats Formulas that Every Spreadsheet User Should Know About

By: Gary Miller

By: shekhar