Re: Data Analysis: An old problem revisited

From: Howard Shapiro (hms@shapirolab.com)
Date: Wed Feb 12 1997 - 21:39:23 EST


The median is a more robust statistic (i.e., less sensitive to outliers and
asymmetry of distributions) than the mean, so it makes sense to compare
medians rather than means.  The problem with taking a ratio is that your
control values are too small; single digits on an RFI scale of 1-10000 are
likely to represent measurements dominated by noise.  Differences between
medians on a log scale are, in effect, ratios,  and present the same
problem.  The difference between medians on the linear RFI scale is probably
a safe measure.  

-Howard



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