Good Books

Mean, a. [OE. mene, OF.
meiien, F. moyen, fr. L. medianus that is in the
middle, fr. medius; akin to E. mid. See Mid.]
1. Occupying a middle position; middle; being
about midway between extremes.

Being of middle age and a mean
stature.

2. Intermediate in excellence of any
kind.

According to the fittest style of lofty, mean,
or lowly.

3. (Math.) Average; having an
intermediate value between two extremes, or between the several
successive values of a variable quantity during one cycle of
variation; as, mean distance; mean motion; mean
solar day.

Mean distance (of a planet from the sun)
(Astron.), the average of the distances throughout one
revolution of the planet, equivalent to the semi-major axis of the
orbit. -- Mean error (Math. Phys.),
the average error of a number of observations found by taking the
mean value of the positive and negative errors without regard to
sign.


Pages:
484 485 486 487 488 489 490 491 492 493 494 495 496 497 498 499 500 501 502 503 504 505 506 507 508