Quote:
Originally Posted by recycledelectron
Based on empirical evidence here, only 1 in 16 MobileRead.com readers can perform basic arithmetic.
If the average person read 4 books, then we would expect that 4 people read a total of 16 books.
But, if the 3 of 4 who did read a book read an average of 7 books, then we would expect they read a total of 21 books.
This does not add up.
I'm shocked, outraged, and saddened that the illiterate readers of MobileRead.com didn't pick this up before now.
Andy
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Statistics can be hard to understand. What they are saying is that if you include all people in the average then the average is 4 books. The people who don't read at all are dragging down the average which in this case may be an arithmetic average but it is not stated. If you include those people that read at least one book and leave out all the people who did not read any books at all and then compute peculiar average which is not the middle but the 25 percentile then you can an average of 7 books. It is impossible from the values given to recreate the data thus you cannot make your own computation and get the numbers.
There are 3 different kinds of averages and they don't say which one they are using. There is a pure mathematical average where the numbers are added up and then you divide by the number of people but there is also a average where you list all the people in the order of books read and then find the center person and see what he/she read. Another average is to group everybody by books read and the take the largest group although based on the context I do not believe this type of average was used.
I know its mud but is it a little clearer?
Dale