ChatterBank1 min ago
% of above average height uk
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What percentage of people in the uk are above average height?
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No best answer has yet been selected by lewy2702. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.
For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.Excuse my homersimpsonism again - doh! - but...being totally unmathematical, I've often wondered about the word 'average' in a context such as this. Jenstar's "50%" answer seems the obvious one and, by the same token, the percentage below average would also be 50%.
But - with half above and half below - wouldn't that mean that nobody actually was of average height? That can't be right, surely. Wouldn't there be more people on that height than any other, suggesting the percentage would be quite high rather than 0%? Yeah...I know...I'm as thick as two short planks!
There are 3 (to my knowledge) types of average. The "mean" is a theoretical figure which is arrived at by adding all the figures, and dividing by the number of bits of data. ie the mean of 10 and 6 is 8 (10+6 divided by 2 = 8). So QM is sort of right, there may not be anyone of average height, (and the more accurate you are, the fewer people there will be). The "median" is the value which has an equal number of values greater and smaller than it. The "mode" is the most frequently occurring value.