Tad To follow up on what Susan said, if f(t) is a function giving the temperature at any time t, then the average temperature over a period from a to b would be the integral of f(t) from a to b divided by the difference b-a. It would be an interesting problem to take a set of temperature readings e.g. every hour or every half-hour, use a numerical method like the trapezoid rule or Simpson's rule and see how close that value is to the offical method of taking the average of the high and the low. Sounds like a good question or project for a calculus class.
Dr. David Thomas Centenary College of Louisiana Department of Mathematics P. O. Box 41188 email@example.com Shreveport, LA 71134-1188 voice 318 - 869 - 5035 fax 318 - 869 - 5026
On Tue, 9 May 1995, Tad Watanabe wrote:
> > Well, I have received about 6 replies on this question. It seems like > the "official" way of determining average temperature is simply to take > the mean of high and low temp. of the day (or mid-range). > > Thanks for your replies. > > Tad Watanabe > Towson State University > Towson, Maryland