Question

could someone please define "geometric mean" i have no idea what it means

Answer 1

square root of the product of values
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geometric_mean

Answer 2

nth root I mean

Answer 3

the arithmetic mean of a and b is defined as \(\displaystyle\frac{a+b}{2}\)

the geometric mean of a and b is defined as \(\displaystyle\sqrt{ab}\)

Answer 4

Right, that's the specific case of n = 2

Answer 5

if you extend this to n numbers, then you get:

arithmetic mean = \(\displaystyle\frac{a_1+a_2+...+a_n}{n}\)

geometric mean = \(\sqrt[n]{a_1a_2...a_n}\)