Forum Discussion
hotbyte
Jul 21, 2015Explorer
How do you get 2/.3 = 10?
And, this is the average (harmonic mean) mpg of 5mpg and 10mpg. What you are stating with the need for the total miles and gallons is the cumulative rate for the vehicle over 2 (or more) trips.
And, this is the average (harmonic mean) mpg of 5mpg and 10mpg. What you are stating with the need for the total miles and gallons is the cumulative rate for the vehicle over 2 (or more) trips.
toedtoes wrote:hotbyte wrote:dave54 wrote:
http://www.cut-the-knot.org/arithmetic/HarmonicMean.shtml
In math geek talk average and mean are not the same thing. There are different kinds of means, one of which is the arithmetic mean, commonly called average. This problem uses the harmonic mean.
This is the answer. Harmonic mean is used to average rates and MPG is a rate (miles PER gallon). So the average of 5mpg and 10mpg is 2 / ( 1/5 + 1/10 ).
X = 2 / (1/5 + 1/10)
X = 2 / (.2 + .1)
X = 2 / (.3)
X = 10
?????
That is NOT the answer. The answer is that you cannot determine the mean/average/harmonic/arithmetic/or otherwise by only looking at the mpg of two different trips. You have to go to the original data (miles driven and gallons used) to get the answer.
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