In case where one deals with tabulated frequency distributions, which type of data is more suited to arithmetic mean, geometric mean and harmonic mean? I know how to calculate these means. However, I am confused which type of data requires arithmetic mean, or geometric mean or harmonic mean as the best average.
Asked
Active
Viewed 1,779 times
2
-
Harmonic mean usually appears when averaging rates/speeds, have a look here for an example : http://stackoverflow.com/questions/34794664/how-should-i-calculate-the-average-speed-by-road-segment-for-multiple-segments/34795821#34795821 – Uri Goren Oct 21 '16 at 21:00
1 Answers
2
Datasets following a linear regression are most easily summarised by the arithmetic mean. If the fit is exponential (the values span several orders of magnitude), the geometric mean is a better choice, and reciprocal regression (as is common with speeds and other rates) is usually explained with a harmonic mean.
In short, the equation your data values fit determines what type of average is most appropriate.
Parcly Taxel
- 103,344