Forum Overview :: Cabaret Voltron :: Math question for Zseni

[quote name="Tony"][quote name="The Cheap Zseni Machine"]There are more differences, in things like strength and stoicism and courage, between individuals than groups.[/quote] Sorry if this sounds stupid, or if I use terms incorrectly. I don't remember much math. See, as I understand it, you can't compare a set of numbers to another set directly. If you want to call one set greater than another, you need to use some sort of proxy for each set, like the average or aggregate (or something). You compare those instead. And you do the same thing if you want to find a difference between sets. So when you say that there's greater variance within groups than between them, you're actually comparing a difference in stoicism to a difference in average stoicism. Now, averages <i>look</i> like ordinary scores, more so than standard deviations or some other properties of sets, so the comparison seems sensible on its face. I just always thought they were kind of apples and oranges. Not directly comparable. Do I have this wrong?[/quote]