A.1.2—Arithmetic means

The arithmetic mean is the total of the observations divided by their count. It summarises repeated measurements when they represent the same quantity and are on the same scale.

Inspect the raw values first, calculate the mean with full precision and report spread or anomalous values rather than hiding them.

Rates 9, 10 and 11 units min⁻¹ have mean 10; if one reading was taken at a different temperature, combining it may be misleading.

A mean is sensitive to outliers and does not prove that the system is stable or normally distributed.