So, here’s a website that gives a bunch of information on election polls…

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/polls/

All that information! What’s it mean? What’s goin’ on here? Let’s take the page from top to bottom… it says it’s “Poll Averages.” See how the rows of the charts give a number of people who do polls (like FOX News and Gallup… they call people up on the phone and ask their opinion). Then at the top it says “RCP Average” (Real Clear Politics Average). So, how to they figure the average?

The poll numbers for Biden for the democrats are 3%, 2%, 1%, 1%, 4%, and 3%, and the average is 2.3%. The poll numbers for Huckabee for the rep’s say 17%, 11%, 8%, 10%, 6%, and 8%, and the average is 10%. So, lookin’ at those numbers, how’re they figurin’ the average? Figure it out!

Median hourly earnings of automotive service technicians and mechanics, including commission, were $15.60 in May 2004. . . . Median annual earnings in the industries employing the largest numbers of service technicians in May 2004 were as follows:

Local government…..$38,160
Automobile dealers…..38,060
Automotive repair and maintenance…..28,810
Gasoline stations…..28,030
Automotive parts, accessories, and tire stores…..27,180

So, I noticed this word median on the GED test and on online GED study information. So, I figure this will help with GED preparation. I looked it up, and here’s the scoop…

Mean is what normal people call an average… you have a bunch of numbers, and you add them together and divide by how many numbers there were. So, if I have 1, 5, 5, and 5, I add them together… 16… and divide by 4 (I added 4 numbers)… and I get a mean of 4.

Okay. Median is the number in the middle… so if I had five numbers and put them in order, the median would be the one in the center. (Median of 1, 3, 5, 5, 8 is 5.) If you have an even number of numbers, you average the middle two. (Median of 1, 3, 5, 8 is 4… halfway between 3 and 5).

So, when they give the median, it means half of all people earn more money, and half earn less money. Half of all mechanics earn less than $15 bucks an hour? I gotta get into somethin’ that pays more! So I guess I gotta get my GED!

I looked up mechanics, and here’s what it said:

Median hourly earnings of automotive service technicians and mechanics, including commission, were $15.60 in May 2004. The middle 50 percent earned between $11.31 and $20.75 per hour. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $8.70, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $26.22 per hour. Median annual earnings in the industries employing the largest numbers of service technicians in May 2004 were as follows:

Local government…..$38,160
Automobile dealers…..38,060
Automotive repair and maintenance…..28,810
Gasoline stations…..28,030
Automotive parts, accessories, and tire stores…..27,180

Well, the first thing I see is that mechanics make like $10,000 bucks more working for auto dealers! Man, I gotta look into that!

But then, I started seeing that everything said “median.” What’s that mean? Why’re they using “median”? Do they mean average? I’m going to look it up… see what it means and see if I can figure out why they use that. Gimme a holler in a comment if you have any ideas!

Well, I found this real interestin’ site, that’s got election math… And it showed me this quote I totally agree with:

Democracy is the worst form of Government except [for] all those other forms that have been tried from time to time. —Winston Churchill

Don’t that just say it? Way the gov’t works seems so unfair sometimes, but I guess we at least don’t have some crazy dictator, right?

Anyway, this site is called The Mathematics of Voting, and it shows how if you’ve got more than two candidates in an election, using math, you can’t fairly pick one winner. Weird, huh? I guess that’s why you gotta have primaries, narrow things down, and then why a third-party candidate can screw things up, like they say. I guess if you understand this stuff, the statistics math on the GED will be a cinch, right?

Take a look at this stuff… especially the four ways they figure out if a win is “fair.” And next time I’ll get you some GED practice questions.

To find out more about the GED test and GED test preparation, visit The GED Academy at passGED.com.

Now, to some real serious matters. It’s almost January 3, that means those people out in Iowa and New Hampshire are voting for who’s up for President. I gotta bug Becca ’bout gettin’ some election stuff on her GED social studies blog, cuz this is important stuff.

Candidates in both parties are real close… Obama and Hillary are neck in neck for the Dems, with Edwards still in the mix, and the Republicans… you got Romney, Huckabee, and McCain. Whew. So, it’s like, we’re using this system to boil it down to two choices. If everyone just voted for someone for president, votes’d be all over the place. Thinkin’ about this stuff is good for your GED skills, so think… is the way we do it the best way?

That makes me wonder about what happened in 2000. I wasn’t paying too good attention back then, wasn’t into my GED or anything yet, but I guess good ol’ G.W. won the election but not the “popular vote.” Somewhere in the math… (yup, math like’s on the GED) less than half the people voted for him and he still got to be president. Now, how’s that work?

Here’s the deal.

President gets elected by “electoral college votes.” Each state’s got a certain number of them. If most people in a state vote for you, you get all the electoral college votes for the states. So, let’s have a GED practice question. Take this example.

Alabama 9 electoral college votes 4.5 million people
Alaska 3 electoral college votes 0.6 million people
Arizona 10 electoral college votes 5.1 million people
Arkansas 6 electoral college votes 2.7 million people

And it goes on and on like that.

So, here’s your GED practice….

Alabama: Democrat = 2.2 million votes
Republican = 2.3 million votes

Alaska: Democrat = .5 million votes
Republican = .1 million votes

Arizona: Democrat = 2.3 million votes
Republican = 2.8 million votes

Arkansas: Democrat = 1.7 million votes
Republican = 1 million votes

What’s the total popular vote for each candidate?

What’s the total electoral vote for each candidate?

If these were all the states, who wins?

Test out your GED skills, and I’ll get you an answer next time.

To find out more about the GED test and GED test preparation, visit The GED Academy at passGED.com.

My question was, how to they figure the average?

When I first checked ‘em, the poll numbers for Biden for the democrats were 3%, 2%, 1%, 1%, 4%, and 3%, and the average was 2.3%. So, what do you think they mean by average? People usually mean what those math people call “mean.” To get the mean, you add the numbers together and then divide by how many numbers there are. So, I can figure out if that’s what they’re doing:

3 + 2 + 1 + 1 + 4 + 3 = 14

14/6 = 2-2/6, or 2-1/3, or 2.3% … so far, so good.

The numbers for Huckabee said 17%, 11%, 8%, 10%, 6%, and 8%, and the average was 10%. Let’s check this one:

17 + 11 + 8 + 10 + 6 + 8 = 60

60 / 6 = 10%

Yup, they’re finding the mean… adding the numbers together, then dividing by how many numbers they added.

Does that give you a good picture of what the numbers mean, do you think?

I wanna look some more at these numbers….