Re: Idempotence and "Replication Insensitivity" are equivalent ?

"vc" <boston103_at_hotmail.com> writes:
> Phil Carmody wrote:
> > pamelafluente_at_libero.it writes:
> > > the Median is the value which minimize the sum of absolute differences
> > >
> > > ie. sum | xi - c | is minimum for c = MEDIAN()
> >
> > If I were Bob Silverman, you'd get one heck of a flaming for
> > posting something so obviously somewhere in between unintelligible
> > and meaningless (including both endpoints) to sci.math.
>
> Are saying that the median does not have the property that it minimizes
> the sum of absolute deviations ?

I'm not saying that. I'm saying that the property does not always uniquely define a median ("*the* value", emphasis mine), and therefore cannot be used as the definition therefor. There are some sets, such as {0, 1}, where every value between 0 and 1 (including both endpoints) is minimum.

I thought I dropped enough of a hint in my prior post, obviously not.

Phil

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