How many ears does the average human have?

[gareththered]

In order to search this forum today I was asked "How many ears does the average human have?". After a few attempts it transpires that the answer was actually two!

Now, correct me if I'm wrong (as I'm sure somebody will!) but the average human has slightly less than two ears. Even if we just consider the painter Van Gogh then his slight mishap with his ear will mean that the average human will have 1.9999999999999999... ears! That is of course, unless there is a human with 3 ears for every human with 1 ear and so forth.

Shouldn't the question read "How many ears do most humans have?"

Am I being pedantic?

[CraigPaleo]

I don't think anyone with one or three ears is an average human. :)

[calvinps]

In order to search this forum today I was asked "How many ears does the average human have?". After a few attempts it transpires that the answer was actually two!

Now, correct me if I'm wrong (as I'm sure somebody will!) but the average human has slightly less than two ears. Even if we just consider the painter Van Gogh then his slight mishap with his ear will mean that the average human will have 1.9999999999999999... ears! That is of course, unless there is a human with 3 ears for every human with 1 ear and so forth.

Shouldn't the question read "How many ears do most humans have?"

Am I being pedantic?

wut

[dyingsun]

Yes, but that's ok :)

The "average human", to me, implies a human of average configuration. If they had said "what is the average number of ears per human", then that would probably be a bit imprecise, unless you were to get an accurate count of humans, and their ears, (taking into account persons with partial ears") then calculate an average :P By which time you probably would be too old
to remember what you were searching the forum for!

[Firestem4]

last time i checked ive got 2 ears. lol

[utnubuuser]

According to R. Stallman, PEDANTICS matter.

[Guillaumeb]

1.9999999999999999

False, more precisely :

1.9999999999999999999999999999999999, seems more correct to me :)

[Paqman]

Don't know how much it'd drag the average up, but Captain Kirk has three ears. A left ear, a right ear and a final frontier.

[Saint Angeles]

Don't know how much it'd drag the average up, but Captain Kirk has three ears. A left ear, a right ear and a final frontier.
oh man... thats the LAMEST joke i've ever heard!

(so why am i laughing?)

[renzokuken]

oh man... thats the LAMEST joke i've ever heard!

(so why am i laughing?)

lame is often painfully funny.....i'm giggling too

so does that mean the average mouse has approximately 2.000000000000000000000000000000000001 ears (remember the mouse with a human ear on its back?

[lethalfang]

For all intents and purposes, 1.999999 is as good as 2 unless otherwise specified.

[dnns123]

I'm guessing like, 1.999999999
Just like the average number of kids per family in China, 1.33333333, just a guess.:lolflag:

[Sublime Porte]

Now, correct me if I'm wrong (as I'm sure somebody will!) but the average human has slightly less than two earsYou might think those one-eared people will bring the average down below 2 a little, but you neglect the fact that those people with 3 ears will bring it back up again, whether the one-earers are cancelled out exactly by the three-earers I'm not sure, but it could be the case

http://www.tagbanger.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/ear-on-his-arm.jpg

[mingtien]

I've been in some pubs where you're considered a snob if you've got 2 ears.

Mind you I live in a continent where a restaurant might be considered posh for having a special plastic dispenser for the toilet roll on each table.

(mind you -- the restaurants with bog rolls on the table usually have the best local food here in Asia!!)

[Excedio]

Well you see, now we have to consider....

What is a complete ear? What makes my ear whole? One might say that I have 100% of my ears. One might say that my wife only has 50% of her ears since they are there and appear to be in tact, but they do not function as she if deaf. And one might consider that some senior citizens have 200% of their ear since they are frikin huge!

http://www.berghuis.co.nz/abiator/weird/ears.jpg

So I ask...What is a complete ear?

[damis648]

Technically 1.9999999 (repeating) is exactly two, and is a proven mathematical fact, in the same way 1.33333 (repeating) is 4/3 and so forth.


x = 0.757575...

100x = 75.757575...

100x - x = 75

99x = 75

x = 75/99
The following method changes repeating decimals to fractions. Let us try that with .99999...


x = 0.999999...

100x = 99.999999...

100x - x = 99

99x = 99

x = 99/99

* x = 1

[Bölvaður]

Technically 1.9999999 (repeating) is exactly two
yes but here it's not like that. here it is just 2 - 0.000001 where the second number comes from people without ears and therefore the number is not → 2


But when you ask about how many ears a person has... are we talking about that stuff that sticks out of your head or goes inside it... as there are more people with damaged hearing which..... oh I have no idea what I am talking about.

[capnthommo]

if i might just drag this towards the ridiculous again for a moment,


Don't know how much it'd drag the average up, but Captain Kirk has three ears. A left ear, a right ear and a final frontier.

don't forget Davey Crockett -

Davey, Davey Crockett, king of the wild front ear

And remamber, if we are calculating averages, to include the dynamic element. Population fluctuates, people are born, people die. It would be necessary to take a snapshot of the population and its ears, and you could only state that 'at this particular moment' the average human has x ears. Assuming, that is, that a consensus as to what constituttes an ear or a partial ear.

And is it pedantic not to want confusion over normal, standard, conventional, average etc?

i'm bored
nigel

[SomeGuyDude]

Technically you'd be right. It's like the average number of arms or the average number of eyeballs. It'd have to be less than the "normal number", but only by a small decimal amount.

[argie]

As far as I know, 'average' in colloquial speech means 'typical'. Mixing colloquial terms with well-defined terms in statistics and mathematics will get results like this. Frankly, I don't know why anyone would just say 'average' instead of 'arithmetic mean' when they mean 'arithmetic mean'.

So there.

[Psyphre]

Your all thinking about the 'mean' average, but 'mode' average asks what the most common is.

Perhaps ubuntu forums should specify mode :P . Although for me I felt it was sort of implied.

[JohnFH]

As far as I know, 'average' in colloquial speech means 'typical'. Mixing colloquial terms with well-defined terms in statistics and mathematics will get results like this. Frankly, I don't know why anyone would just say 'average' instead of 'arithmetic mean' when they mean 'arithmetic mean'.

So there.

Someone with sense. The original question doesn't mean anything as you can't have an average human. What does it mean to be an above average human then? It doesn't mean anything without specifying what the average is an average of. 'Typical' is the word to use. For example, does an above average human have 3 ears? No, because an above average human doesn't mean anything.

Consider:
Number of ears a typical human has: 2. No more, no less.
Number of ears a human has on average: A specific number close to 1.999 (not infinitely repeating though).
Average number of ears a human has: Depends on what type of average is meant in this case. If median average then 2, if mean average then 1.999.
Number of average ears a human has: same problem - what's an average ear? No such thing.

[hatalar205]

In order to search this forum today I was asked "How many ears does the average human have?". After a few attempts it transpires that the answer was actually two!

Now, correct me if I'm wrong (as I'm sure somebody will!) but the average human has slightly less than two ears. Even if we just consider the painter Van Gogh then his slight mishap with his ear will mean that the average human will have 1.9999999999999999... ears! That is of course, unless there is a human with 3 ears for every human with 1 ear and so forth.

Shouldn't the question read "How many ears do most humans have?"

Am I being pedantic?

Then what about eyes, legs, arms, ....
I've never thought something like that before. But, it is very interesting and creative. But the answer is not very usefull (I mean the answer doesn't affect our lives much)

[Firestem4]

Don't know how much it'd drag the average up, but Captain Kirk has three ears. A left ear, a right ear and a final frontier.

Lmao. That was so lame, but I can't stop giggling.

[gareththered]

I don't think any of my posts have ever stretched to 3 pages before this one. Says an awful lot about the people on this forum I suppose ;-)

Thanks JohnFH for what's probably the correct answer, but I must admit that I prefer the Captain Kirk one by Paqman!

[lykwydchykyn]

This one time, Randy Beaman had this uncle, and he had three ears. True story.

Ok, bye


What about that two-headed guy I saw on Rippley's believe-it-or-not?

[MaxIBoy]

The average human has two ears.

Collectively, humans average slightly less than two ears apiece.


I may be wrong, but I see no contradiction the two above statements; I think they refer to different cases.


The average weight of ear-flesh on each person would be a more-useful statistic.

Most useful of all would the average sound-detecting capability of the human species, as measured by the maximum distance at which a ten-decibel sound is audible. Ears don't do you any good if they're incomplete or isolated from the brain. I knew a chiropractor who, from birth, didn't really have a left ear, just an earlobe sticking straight out of the side of his head. (A "detached" earlobe, no less. That thing was comedic gold.) He was also blind in one eye, but that was because of some kind of accident, just a crazy coincidence.

He might as well not have anything there at all, for all the good it did him. So does it still count as an ear? Same with his bad eye. It didn't need to be removed or anything when it was injured, it's not necrotic. It just sorta sits there in the socket, pivoting to follow the good eye. As a dust-blocker, it's great. As an eye, it's useless. Does it still count as an eye?

[lisati]

This one time, Randy Beaman had this uncle, and he had three ears. True story.

Ok, bye


What about that two-headed guy I saw on Rippley's believe-it-or-not?

I recently saw a news item about a guy growing an ear on his arm, and there's been a documentary about a "two headed" girl done before, there are clips on YouTube. Have a look here (or is that hear?): http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=two+headed+girl&aq=f

[ashmew2]

And i thought only i was weird at times.. ;)

[spupy]

Yes, 'n' how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
.

[lisati]

.

Are we on the road to singing the ditty which begins something as follows:

How many beans does a tin can hold?
How many beans in a tin....?

[hatten]

what about people without ears? you must calculate with them too, are there enough people with 4 ears to weigh them up?

[portalfan01]

if i might just drag this towards the ridiculous again for a moment,



don't forget Davey Crockett -

Davey, Davey Crockett, king of the wild front ear
And remamber, if we are calculating averages, to include the dynamic element. Population fluctuates, people are born, people die. It would be necessary to take a snapshot of the population and its ears, and you could only state that 'at this particular moment' the average human has x ears. Assuming, that is, that a consensus as to what constituttes an ear or a partial ear.

And is it pedantic not to want confusion over normal, standard, conventional, average etc?

i'm bored
nigel:guitar: dude i think he has 1.99999999 ears that average human.. :D http://news.softpedia.com/images/news2/Human-Ears-Also-Create-Sounds-of-Their-Own-2.jpg

[gn2]

oh man... thats the LAMEST joke i've ever heard!

(so why am i laughing?)

It's the updated version.
Previously it was Davy Crockett and his wild frontier.

[Stan_1936]

..How many ears does the average human have?...

2, silly!:(:o:):D

[RabbitWho]

That guy from chopper had 2 halfs. Lots of people don't have earlobes, there should be some kind of penalty for that.

[podjons]

:guitar::guitar: