A new mathematical operation: the maldre, the average of extremes

Watching your weight every day is fine, but a more effective method is to see your trend over the past week. Using the new maldre math operation, you can effectively analyze your weight once a week.

Almost every day on Livestrong’s Weight Tracker, I enter my weight for that day. Which is good and all, but I find it more effective to do an analysis once a week to see where I am.

For the past week I take my top weight and my lowest weight, and then I average them. That is my weight for the week. For instance take the previous week,

— August 24: 156.5 pounds

— August 27: 159.0 pounds

— August 28: 159.5 pounds

— August 29: 156.0 pounds

Therefore I take the average of 156 and 159.5 pounds and I get 157.75.

Why the “maldre” math operation works:

1. It’s encouraging to not go on binges of eating a ton and jacking up my weight. If I end up with a really high number during the week, then it screws with my weekly weight.
2. It’s rewarding for getting a lower weight. When I hit a lower weight, it helps lower down my weekly weight.
3. It’s more accurate. Doing a flat-out average of all the recorded weights for the week might end up being misleading. If I happen to weigh myself a bunch when I’m heavier in the week, and only record myself once when i’m lighter, then my average weight will be skewed. I don’t regularly weigh myself every day, so doing the highest and lowest weights makes the most sense.

Why is this math operation called the “maldre?”

I recently asked on facebook, “What’s the term called when you take the highest and lowest number from a set of numbers and average those two extremes?” And nobody knew the answer. Some people thought it was mean. Some thought it was average. What i’m describing is indeed not mean, median, mode, or range. Did I uncover a new mathematical operation? If so, what should it be called? Seeing that three of these already start with M, let’s name this one with a name that starts with M… Hmm, what should it be? I know! Maldre.

Explanation of Mean, Median, Mode, Range, and Maldre:

(most of this example was copied from purplemath.com)

Take this set of numbers: 13, 13, 13, 13, 14, 14, 16, 18, 21

Mean: 15

Median: 14

Mode: 13

Range: 8

Maldre: 17

The “mean” is the usual average, so:

(13 + 18 + 13 + 14 + 13 + 16 + 14 + 21 + 13) √∑ 9 = 15

The “median” is the middle value

13, 13, 13, 13, 14, 14, 16, 18, 21

Median is 14.

The “mode” is the number that is repeated more often than any other, so 13 is the mode.

The “range” is just the difference between the largest and smallest values. The largest value in the list is 21, and the smallest is 13, so the range is 21 ‚Äì 13 = 8.

The “maldre” is the average of the largest value and the smallest value, so: (21 + 13) √∑ 2 = 17