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0 pointssebastiennight4mo ago0 comments

The math doesn't add up here?

You're saying that $500-600 (the amount you claim 50% of people have saved up, if it's the median) covers 3 months of expenses?

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throw-qqqqq4mo ago

I mean no offense, but your understanding of a median seems flawed. The median is the number/point that separates the upper half from the lower half - it is not what 50% has.

The math does add up. There is no contradiction in your parent’s post.

sebastiennightOP4mo ago

I'm not sure I catch your explanation, so let's try with some simple numbers and you'll tell me where I'm wrong.

I have a family of 10 people. These people have, respectively,

$0 ; $0 ; $1 ; $5 ; $49 ; $51 ; $190 ; $8,000 ; $150,000 and $1,000,000.

What's the median amount of savings in this group?

And what amount would complete the sentence : "50% of people have ..."?

throw-qqqqq4mo ago

The median of those ten numbers is 50.

If the count of observations is even, it is usually the arithmetic mean of the two mid-points, so (49+51)/2 in this case.

The median does not have to be in the finite set of values.

Maybe Wikipedia can explain better than I can: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median

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throw-qqqqq4mo ago

I mean no offense, but your understanding of a median seems flawed. The median is the number/point that separates the upper half from the lower half - it is not what 50% has.

The math does add up. There is no contradiction in your parent’s post.

sebastiennightOP4mo ago

I'm not sure I catch your explanation, so let's try with some simple numbers and you'll tell me where I'm wrong.

I have a family of 10 people. These people have, respectively,

$0 ; $0 ; $1 ; $5 ; $49 ; $51 ; $190 ; $8,000 ; $150,000 and $1,000,000.

What's the median amount of savings in this group?

And what amount would complete the sentence : "50% of people have ..."?

throw-qqqqq4mo ago

The median of those ten numbers is 50.

If the count of observations is even, it is usually the arithmetic mean of the two mid-points, so (49+51)/2 in this case.

The median does not have to be in the finite set of values.

Maybe Wikipedia can explain better than I can: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse