average

A vague term that usually refers to the arithmetic mean but can also signify the median, mode, geometric mean, or weighted mean. The word stems from a commercial practice of the shipping age. The root aver means to declare, and the shippers of goods would declare the value of their goods. When the goods were sold, a deduction was made from each persons share, based on their declared value, for a portion of the loss or "average."

The average value A of a function between x = a and x = b is defined as the area under the curve of the function (see calculus) divided by (b - a):

Related category

• APPROXIMATIONS AND AVERAGES

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