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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
R: Averaging
From: Federico Rossi
Date: 2004 Oct 18, 09:51 +0200
From: Federico Rossi
Date: 2004 Oct 18, 09:51 +0200
George, The explanation I've found for this recommendation is that this way you can consider the central value of the odd series (i.e. the so called median) which is definitely less affected by abnormal values than the average value. This is a criterion that I also remember from my statistic course at university. Hope this can help. Federico -----Messaggio originale----- Da: Navigation Mailing List [mailto:NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM] Per conto di George Huxtable Inviato: domenica 17 ottobre 2004 23.45 A: NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM Oggetto: Re: Averaging I have read, here on Nav-l and elsewhere, the recommendation that when averaging observations, it's best to take an odd, rather than even number of them. I've no idea why. Can anyone explain? George. ================================================================ contact George Huxtable by email at george@huxtable.u-net.com, by phone at 01865 820222 (from outside UK, +44 1865 820222), or by mail at 1 Sandy Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK. ================================================================