Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, April 19 2012 @ 07:43 AM EDT |
Like "math" being used for the name of this hypothetical class, I'd
expect average to return the sum of the class members divided by the number of
members.
Most people (a set which includes developers) tend to describe things in
minimalist fashion specifying exceptions when needed. Average is just a name
after all.[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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Authored by: Anonymous on Thursday, April 19 2012 @ 07:55 AM EDT |
This is why all software is obvious.
Adding another layer of indirection solves any problem (with the possible
exception of too many layers of indirection).
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Authored by: MDT on Thursday, April 19 2012 @ 09:19 AM EDT |
As someone with both a Masters in Mathematics, and over 10 years as a paid
professional programmer, I will point out that you are, basically, completely,
and totally wrong.
In Mathematics, if we say the Average, we mean the Mean. Thus, it is not true
that only 'laymen' understand it that way. Bzzzt, thanks for playing.
You're not even correct about what an average is.
A Median is not an Average, so again, thank you for playing. A Median is the
value that separates the upper half of a set from the lower half of a set. It is
not an average. It is, quite literally, the value of the middle most value of a
finite set, or the mean of the two middle most values, if there is no middle
value. That is not an average. If you knew anything about mathematics you
would know that. For example, the median of 1, 1, 2, 3, 55 is 2, because it is
the middle value in the set.
By the same token, Mode is not an Average. It is the value that appears most
often in a set. The set above has a Mode of 1, because 1 appears more than any
other value. Again,that is not in any way shape or form an 'average'. It is
the Mode.
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MDT[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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