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Different Types of Averages

 

It is important to think about the reason for calculating an average, and to think about how it is done, because that will dramatically affect the result that is sought.

 

 

In statistics it is possible to calculate:  

Mean - Average (add the values together and divide by the number of values)

Median - Mid-point value

Mode - Values that appear most often

 

There are different types of mean (average), here are some examples:

 

Current Average: This takes the sum of a number of current values (taken at a specific moment in time) and is divided by the number of values.

 

Average of maximum/minimums: This is the average of maximum or minimum values.

 

Rolling Average: This takes the sum of a number of values (taken over a period of time) and is divided by the number of values.

 

For a Rolling Average it is very important to decide what the duration of the time period should be, and the interval between the value readings.

For example, the duration might be 24 hours and the value readings being taken at intervals of one hour.

 

There are 2 methods for working out a rolling average:

 

1. The best solution is to use an ActiveX control which has been specifically developed to calculate a rolling average.

There is an ActiveX control called SVRollAv1 which takes inputs/outputs from SpecView and does the calculations. It also handles the case of bad values.

 

2. Or it is possible to calculate a Rolling Average using SpecView's Strategy Controller