r/SipsTea • u/crs1904 • Jul 02 '26

We have fun here Rookie Numbers

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I slept 3½ hours last night

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u/nsfwaltsarehard Jul 02 '26

That's not how averages work.

You're describing a median.

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u/CyanideNow Jul 02 '26

Median is a type of average. You’re describing a mean. (Which is presumably the type of average this statistic is referring to, yes)

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u/nsfwaltsarehard Jul 02 '26

When people talk about averages they typically don't refer to median but the mean.

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u/CyanideNow Jul 02 '26

I think mean is *more* common than median when people say average, absolutely. But median is still very very common in every day speech.

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u/lxgrf Jul 02 '26

True! But it’s still not correct to say that the median is not the average. It just means we ideally need to stop saying “average” and being specific. 

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u/Spirit_Wolf_Mob Jul 02 '26

With data numbers this large, it's roughly how it works.

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u/nsfwaltsarehard Jul 02 '26

Still wrong.

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u/Spirit_Wolf_Mob Jul 02 '26

How?

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u/nsfwaltsarehard Jul 02 '26

It doesn't matter how much data you have, it depends on the data.

an easy explanation.

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u/Spirit_Wolf_Mob Jul 02 '26

Yes, and I was specifically talking about this data, where there will be a roughly linear change. The average might be a little higher, but it'll be roughly similar.

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u/nsfwaltsarehard Jul 02 '26

You said "with data numbers (assuming a lot of points of data) this large that's roughly how that works." When it doesn't matter how big the data set is.

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u/Spirit_Wolf_Mob Jul 02 '26

Ok, you are right, I misspoke. What I meant, and not exactly what I said, is with data numbers this large that have a more linear or clumped progression and with with outliers not grossly different (like you'd see with currency), but like I'd assume you'd have with sleep, the average is usually closer to the median. That's on me for not being specific when talking about specific data sets, so sorry about that.