Abstract
It is well-known that the median of an even number of datapoints is not unique; by any of many equivalent definitions, any point in the interval between the innermost points qualify. Recalling that the mean can be defined by a least squares approximation to the dataset, the median via least absolute differences, we consider minimizing the L_(p) norm from the dataset to the diagonal, and compute its limit as p approaches 1 from the right side --- the result is not the midpoint as typically used. We also construct a different family of strictly convex norms converging to L_(1) exhibiting a different limit-median
Suggested citation
J. Tsang, R. Pereira. “Defining a Unique Median via Minimizing Families of Norms.” Journal of Convex Analysis 24 (2017), No. 1, 199–212.
Copyright Heldermann Verlag 2017