Mean and Median properties

Question

Can somebody explain me clear the mathematical logic that would link two statements (a) and (b) together? Let us have a set of values (some distribution). Now,

a) Median does not depend on every value [it just depends on one or two middle values]; b) Median is the locus of minimal sum-of-absolute-deviations from it.

And likewise, and in contrast,

a) (Arithmetic) mean depends on every value; b) Mean is the locus of minimal sum-of-squared-deviations from it.

My grasp of it is intuitive so far. Thank you very much.

Answer 1

For the computation of the median, let $x_1,x_2,\ldots,x_n$ be the data. Assume, for simplicity, that $n$ is even, and the points are distinct! Let $y$ be some number. Let $f(y)$ be the 'sum-of-absolute deviations' of $y$ to the points $x_i$. This means that $f(y) = |x_1 - y| + |x_2 - y| + \ldots + |x_n - y|$. Your goal is to find the $y$ that minimizes $f(y)$. Let $l$ be the number of the $x_i$ that are less than or exactly equal to $y$ at a given point in time, and let $r = n - l$ be the number that are strictly greater than $y$. Pretend you are 'moving $y$ to the right', that is, increase $y$ slightly. What happens to $f(y)$?

Suppose you add an amount of $\Delta y$ to $y$. For those $x_i$ which are less than or equal to $y$, we have $|x_i - y|$ increases by $\Delta y$. And for those greater than $y$, we have $|x_i - y|$ decreases by $\Delta y$. (This assumes $\Delta y$ is so small that $y$ does not cross any of the points). Thus the change in $f(y)$ is $l\Delta y - r \Delta y = (l-r)\Delta y$. Note that this change in $f(y)$ does not depend on the values of the $x_i$ but only on the number to the left and right of $y$. By definition, $y$ is a median value when moving it to the left or right does not increase or decrease $f(y)$. This would mean that $l-r = 0$, and thus the number of $x_i$ to the left of $y$ is equal to the number to the right of $y$. And thus the median does not depend on the values of $x_i$, just their locations.

edit For the mean: the function $f(y)$ becomes $f(y) = (x_1 - y)^2 + \ldots + (x_n - y)^2$. Clearly the change in $f(y)$ for a small change in $y$ now depends on the magnitudes of the $x_i$, not just the number to the left and right of $y$.

Note that this business about the 'small change' is just covert talk for the derivative of $f(y)$...

Answer 2

• Roughly speaking, the median is the "middle value". Now, if you change the highest value (which is supposed to be positive here) from $x_{(n)}$ to $2 * x_{(n)}$, say, it does not change the median. But it does change the arithmetic mean. This shows, in simple terms, that the median does not depend on every value while the mean does. Actually, the median only depends on the ranks. The mathematical logic behind this simply arises from the mathematical definitions of the median and the mean.
• Now, it can be shown that, for any $ a \in \mathbb{R}$

$\sum_{i=1}^{n} |x_{i} - median| \leq \sum_{i=1}^{n} |x_{i} - a|$

and

$\sum_{i=1}^{n} (x_{i} - mean)^{2} \leq \sum_{i=1}^{n} (x_{i} - a)^{2}$

Answer 3

It is worthwhile to review an older version of the same question:

Why is median age a better statistic than mean age?

And, a description of Robust Statistics:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robust_statistics