Measures of Spatial Central Tendency
The coordinate-wise mean of a point set is the centroid, which solves the same variational problem in the plane (or higher dimensional Euclidean space) that the familiar average solves on the real line — that is, the centroid has the smallest possible average squared distance to all points in the set.
Read more about this topic: Spatial Descriptive Statistics
Famous quotes containing the words measures of, measures, central and/or tendency:
“To have the fear of God before our eyes, and, in our mutual dealings with each other, to govern our actions by the eternal measures of right and wrong:MThe first of these will comprehend the duties of religion;Mthe second, those of morality, which are so inseparably connected together, that you cannot divide these two tables ... without breaking and mutually destroying them both.”
—Laurence Sterne (17131768)
“I was surprised by Joes asking me how far it was to the Moosehorn. He was pretty well acquainted with this stream, but he had noticed that I was curious about distances, and had several maps. He and Indians generally, with whom I have talked, are not able to describe dimensions or distances in our measures with any accuracy. He could tell, perhaps, at what time we should arrive, but not how far it was.”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)
“Its easy to forget how central the French people are in everything we mean when we say Europe.”
—John Dos Passos (18961970)
“The world-spirit is a good swimmer, and storms and waves can not drown him. He snaps his fingers at laws; and so, throughout history, heaven seems to affect low and poor means. Through the years and the centuries, through evil agents, through toys and atoms, a great and beneficent tendency irresistibly streams.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)