OK, time for my bit of pedantry. Most human attributes are log normally
distributed. It's the logarithm of the attribute not, the attribute
itself, that's described by a bell shaped curve. We can't have negative
heights or IQ's, a circumstance that the log normal distribution, unlike
the normal or Gaussian distribution, doesn't permit. For most purposes,
especially when looking near the mean, the two distributions are very
close. I guess that means that the log of all the children in Lake
Woebegone are above average. :-)

Al

wrote:
On Nov 13, 12:15 pm, Jim Beckman wrote:

At 19:55 12 November 2008, TonyV wrote:


wrote:

"We all like to think we're smarter than average, but at least half

of

us are deluded"

No. That would be the "median" not the "average". Sorry, had to get

that

out :-)

Given that there is a lower limit to intelligence (dumb enough
and you can't remember to keep breathing) but no noticeable
upper limit, I would suggest that most likely *more* than
half of us are dumber than average.

Jim Beckman


Can't believe I'm biting on this...

"Although the term "IQ" is still in common use, the scoring of modern
IQ tests such as the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale is now based on
a projection of the subject's measured rank on the Gaussian bell curve
with a center value (average IQ) of 100, and a standard deviation of
15, although different tests may have different standard deviations."

- Source: Wikipedia - the source of all possibly true facts

...and the link to the bell curve

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...7/IQ_curve.svg

Presumably someone in a persistent vegetative state would be unable to
take the test and would score a 0 - you'd need an equal number at 200
to preserve the symmetry - and you don't meet many of those.

Now back to our original programming already in progress...

...nice article BB! Even in the WSJ using the term "median" will lose
you readership, so we'll overlook the linguistic license.

9B