The sum of a series of observations divided by the number of observations. Symbol:
. It can be calculated by the formula:
Note:
All summations are taken from 1 to
. Note that the arithmetic mean is an unbiased estimate of the population mean, i.e.
is the limiting value for
, as
.
Source:
PAC, 1994, 66, 595
(Nomenclature for the presentation of results of chemical analysis (IUPAC Recommendations 1994))
on page 599
Cite as:
IUPAC. Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 2nd ed. (the "Gold Book"). Compiled by A. D. McNaught and A. Wilkinson. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford (1997). XML on-line corrected version: http://goldbook.iupac.org (2006-) created by M. Nic, J. Jirat, B. Kosata; updates compiled by A. Jenkins. ISBN 0-9678550-9-8.
doi:10.1351/goldbook.
