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How do you find the geometric mean between 36 and 4?

1 Answer

Dec 22, 2016

The geometric mean of $36$ and $4$ is $12$

Explanation:

Since $36=6^2$ and $4=2^2$ are both perfect squares, the easiest way is to multiply their square roots:

$sqrt(36)*sqrt(4) = 6*2 = 12$

In general, the geometric mean of $a, b > 0$ is $sqrt(ab) = sqrt(a)sqrt(b)$ .

When calculating, just choose which of $sqrt(ab)$ and $sqrt(a)sqrt(b)$ is easiest to work with.

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