Remarks on the Neglected Mean

Abstract

The harmonic mean of two positive, real numbers was known to early Greek mathematicians. In fact, it is alleged that “Pythagoras learned in Mesopotamia of three means—the arithmetic, the geometric, and the subcontrary (later called the harmonic)—and of the ‘golden proportion’ relating two of these: the first of two numbers is to their arithmetic mean as their harmonic mean is to the second of the numbers” (Boyer 1968). Archytas, a disciple of Pythagoras (whose most important contribution to mathematics may very well have been his intervention with Dionysius to save the life of his friend, Plato), wrote on the application of these three means to music, and is possibly the one who is responsible for renaming the suhcontrary mean the harmonic mean (Boyer 1968).