Four Means: Arithmetic, Harmonic, Geometric, RMS

The main concept here is that of finding the value that is most representative of a group.

Arithmetic Mean:
xmean =

i= 1

The example below shows three resistors in series.

The arithmetic mean of the three resistances is:

R=

R1 + R2 + R3 3

As seen below, each of the resistors can be substituted by the arithmetic mean and the current will still be the same for the applied voltage because

I=

V R1 + R2 + R3

V 3 R

Harmonic Mean:

xmean = N

1 x i = 1 i

The example below shows three resistors in parallel.

The harmonic mean of the three resistances is:

R=

3 1 R1 + 1 R2 + 1 R3

As seen below, each of the resistors can be substituted by the harmonic mean and the current I will still be the same for the applied voltage V because I = V 1 R1 + 1 R2 + 1 R3

= V 3 R

Geometric Mean:

N xmean = i = 1

xi

The example below shows three voltage amplifiers in series.

Vout = A1 A2 A3 Vin

The geometric mean of the three voltage amplifiers is:

A = ( A1 A2 A3)

Below, it is seen that each of the amplifiers can be substituted by the geometric mean and the output voltage will be the same for the applied input voltage Vin. Vout = A1 A2 A3 Vin = A Vin
3


Root Mean Square (RMS):
xmean =

xi

i= 1

Equations characterizing energy or power often involve squared terms. For instance, Kinetic_Energy = 1 2 1 2 m v
2 2 2

Spring_Energy =

k x

Resistive_Power_Dissipation =

= I R

The RMS is often used to find the mean (effective) amplitudes of v,x, V, or I that are representative of the energy or power levels. For instance, the temperature of a dilute gas is directly proportional to the net kinetic energy of the molecules of the gas: 2 1 Temperature = 3 R

i= 1

1 m v 2 2 o i

where R is the ideal gas constant and mo is the mass of each molecule (assuming only one type of molecules)

The above equation is typically expressed as: 1 N 2 mo vRMS 3 R

Temperature =

where vRMS is the root-mean-square velocity (speed) defined as:

N

(vi)
vRMS =
i= 1

Thus, if each molecule of a dilute, homogeneous gas was forced to move at the root mean square velocity (speed), the temperature of the gas would not change.

The RMS measures the mean amplitude of a group without regard to signs. For instance the RMS of the measurements 1 and -1 is 1. However, the arithmetic mean of 1 and -1 is 0.