Cake

[officehazard]

Uh, I'm no math whiz (he said yet again), but MEDIAN and AVERAGE are very different.

I would have never guessed. Median is the middle number of any grouping of numbers. Example: 10, 20, 30, 90, 10000. The median is 30. The average would be 2030. Median is a good way to describe a population since the outliers are essentially thrown out of the equation.

Disparity in succes has a lot more to do with size than income, though one usually comes with the other. People who can move, move to the best schools which contributes to their larger size.

[Froggy Richards]

Uh, I'm no math whiz (he said yet again), but MEDIAN and AVERAGE are very different.

Yes, there are some awesome million-dollar mansions out in Andover city limits.

Warren Buffet lives in Omaha. That probably puts the median there somewhere in the billion dollar range, even though most Omaha folks probably make about $40,000 per year. If you know what I mean.

You are backwards. Warren Buffet would skew the Average much higher. The Median would remain virtually the same.

[MNHockeyFan]

Uh, I'm no math whiz (he said yet again), but MEDIAN and AVERAGE are very different.

Yes, there are some awesome million-dollar mansions out in Andover city limits.

Warren Buffet lives in Omaha. That probably puts the median there somewhere in the billion dollar range, even though most Omaha folks probably make about $40,000 per year. If you know what I mean.

Adding to Froggy's post, median means the half-way point - half the households have incomes above the median and half have less. In your Omaha example, Buffet would certainly raise the city's average household income, which would be computed by adding up the incomes of all households and dividing it by the number of households. But his super high income would have no more effect on the city's median household income than a family earning $100,000, or even $50,000 as long as $50,000 was above the median point for all households.

[Doc Holliday]

"Well, the world needs ditch diggers too!"
-Judge Smails

[thestickler07]

Uh, I'm no math whiz

Stop right there.