Talk:Averages/Mode: Difference between revisions
→The name of the task: StdDev removed, should be fine.
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::::An average is a single value that is meant to typify a list of values. If all the numbers in the list are the same, then this number should be used. If the numbers are not all the same, . . . the average is calculated by combining the values from the set in a specific way and computing a single number as being the average of the set.
:::This seems to me to be a useful classification. (I now realize my inclusion of Standard Deviation in the list above was incorrect; while it does compute a single number from a collection, that number is not an average.) Using a prefix rather than a suffix has benefits for sorting. Additionally, averages are not merely statistical techniques: they can give exact answers to certain problems. (Er, I think. I'm having trouble thinking up an example of this at the moment (and it's rather late).) --03:56, 15 August 2009 (UTC)
::::If you pull standard deviations from the list, then "average" is fine. I won't press the point on disambiguation syntax. If you're looking for problems where averages can give exact or non-statistical answers, you might look at physics, motion and prediction. --[[User:Short Circuit|Short Circuit]] 08:03, 15 August 2009 (UTC)
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