Saturday, May 21, 2011
Tricky Average: Mean, Median & Mode
Hi,
Hoping you all are in great health and enjoying prosperous time.
Its been long since I last post my Intel. Hey !! Here I come, this time throwing some light on a tricky statistical/mathematical tool called "Average". Going by definition "An Average is a measure of a central tendency or in other words, it's a value that defines the whole set of values to which it belongs."
Now many of us may believe that "Average" and "Mean" is exactly same... hmm... but that is only 1/3 of the truth. Yes, you heard me right, any one of the terrific trio in stats "Mean", "Median" or "Mode" can be regarded as an "Average" individually.
Mean, we know, arithmetic mean i.e sum of values divided by total no. of values. Median is the central value that divides a set of values into 2 halves i.e upper 50% and lower 50% while Mode is the value that appears most in a set of values.
Example : for values 1,2,2,3,4,5,6
Mean = 3.28, Median = 3, Mode = 2
Now, there is a trick/catch, which is being used to fool/dupe customers, don't believe me.... See by yourself...
Let suppose, I have to buy a laptop and I visit some electronic store. Salesman gives me following 3 options with respective ratings* :-
Brand 1 - Average Rating 4 out of 5
Brand 2 - Average Rating 3 out of 5
Brand 3 - Average Rating 5 out of 5
*ratings based on last 10 respective customers reviews
Now, on first look I may go for Brand 3, as it has the best rating among all three, But Hey !! I am not a guy who can be easily fooled or duped. The term "Average" doesn't give me ample information which I would like to have. Rather, I would be interested in knowing whether "Average" here refers to Mean or Median or Mode.
Now, have a look at detailed rating data given by last 10 respective customers below :-
Brand 1 - 4,3,3,4,4,4,4,5,4,5
Brand 2 - 1,2,2,2,3,3,4,4,4,4
Brand 3 - 1,2,2,1,3,4,5,5,5,3
It is clear from above data that,
Brand 1 used "Mean" as an Average
Brand 2 used "Median" as an Average
Brand 3 used "Mode" as an Average
In Brand 2 & Brand 3 there is large variations among their respective customer ratings while Brand 1 seems to have comparatively stable, consistent and high ratings. So, my final decision will definitely be to buy Brand 1.
Hope it was interesting and worth enough to read.... always love to have your precious comments/opinions.... Cheers !!
http://www.qondio.com/tricky-average-mean-median-mode
Hoping you all are in great health and enjoying prosperous time.
Its been long since I last post my Intel. Hey !! Here I come, this time throwing some light on a tricky statistical/mathematical tool called "Average". Going by definition "An Average is a measure of a central tendency or in other words, it's a value that defines the whole set of values to which it belongs."
Now many of us may believe that "Average" and "Mean" is exactly same... hmm... but that is only 1/3 of the truth. Yes, you heard me right, any one of the terrific trio in stats "Mean", "Median" or "Mode" can be regarded as an "Average" individually.
Mean, we know, arithmetic mean i.e sum of values divided by total no. of values. Median is the central value that divides a set of values into 2 halves i.e upper 50% and lower 50% while Mode is the value that appears most in a set of values.
Example : for values 1,2,2,3,4,5,6
Mean = 3.28, Median = 3, Mode = 2
Now, there is a trick/catch, which is being used to fool/dupe customers, don't believe me.... See by yourself...
Let suppose, I have to buy a laptop and I visit some electronic store. Salesman gives me following 3 options with respective ratings* :-
Brand 1 - Average Rating 4 out of 5
Brand 2 - Average Rating 3 out of 5
Brand 3 - Average Rating 5 out of 5
*ratings based on last 10 respective customers reviews
Now, on first look I may go for Brand 3, as it has the best rating among all three, But Hey !! I am not a guy who can be easily fooled or duped. The term "Average" doesn't give me ample information which I would like to have. Rather, I would be interested in knowing whether "Average" here refers to Mean or Median or Mode.
Now, have a look at detailed rating data given by last 10 respective customers below :-
Brand 1 - 4,3,3,4,4,4,4,5,4,5
Brand 2 - 1,2,2,2,3,3,4,4,4,4
Brand 3 - 1,2,2,1,3,4,5,5,5,3
It is clear from above data that,
Brand 1 used "Mean" as an Average
Brand 2 used "Median" as an Average
Brand 3 used "Mode" as an Average
In Brand 2 & Brand 3 there is large variations among their respective customer ratings while Brand 1 seems to have comparatively stable, consistent and high ratings. So, my final decision will definitely be to buy Brand 1.
Hope it was interesting and worth enough to read.... always love to have your precious comments/opinions.... Cheers !!
http://www.qondio.com/tricky-average-mean-median-mode
