On Wed, Mar 2, 2011 at 5:52 PM, Adam P. Goucher <apgoucher@gmx.com> wrote:
Why is a geometric progression called geometric?
....
Any evidence for wikipedia's theory? Any alternate theories?
Each term is the *geometric mean* of the terms either side of it, which in turn gains its name from the fact that the geometric mean has an elegant compass-and-straight-edge construction.
This sounds much more plausible to me than the etymology in wikipedia. I had thought of geometric progression as the primary one, with geometric mean being called that because the geometric mean of a and b is the number c such that a, c, b is a geometric progression (with positive ratio). But the theory that the geometric progression gets its name from the geometric mean, rather than the other way around, seems quite plausible. I've edited wikipedia to reflect this. Hoping this doesn't produce an edit war... Andy
Sincerely,
Adam P. Goucher
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