Reasonable Averages That Give Wrong Answers

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Title:

Reasonable Averages That Give Wrong Answers

Url:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-9639.1981.tb004...

Creator:

Shahani, A. K. (Arjan Kewalram)

Publisher:

University of Southampton

Description: Averages are meant to convey the essential features of a set of data, or a random variable, in a simple and a concise way. Like any other summary, an average can be misleading, misused and abused; there is a fair amount of literature on this aspect of averages, the book by D. Huff(1973) being a particularly readable account. In one intuitive use of averages there is a source of error which can be quite serious and which is often not recognized. This source of error is illustrated below by a quality control problem, a project, an experiment and a game. A Taylor series expansion gives an insight into the nature of the error.

LC Classification:

Science -- Mathematics -- Mathematical statistics -- Analysis of variance and covariance. Experimental design
Science -- Mathematics -- Mathematical statistics -- Study and teaching. Research

GEM Subject:

Mathematics -- Statistics

Key Concept:

Mathematics -- Averages
Mathematics -- Statistical errors
Mathematics -- Statistics
Mathematics -- Tests of variance

Resource Type:

Reference Material

Format:

Document -- HTML

Audience:

Educator
Learner

Education Level:

High School
Higher Education
Higher Education -- Undergraduate (Lower Division)
Higher Education -- Undergraduate (Upper Division)
Higher Education -- Technical Education (Upper Division)
Higher Education -- Technical Education (Lower Division)
Vocational/Professional Development Education

Language:

English

Access Rights:

Free access

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Source:

CAUSEweb

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