On the Harmonic Mean of Two Numbers

Author(s): G. Polya
Source: The American Mathematical Monthly, Vol. 57, No. 1 (Jan., 1950), pp. 26-28
Published by: Mathematical Association of America
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2305170
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 MATHEMATICAL NOTES
EDITED BY E. F. BECKENBACH, Los Angeles
of California,
University
Materialforthisdepartmentshouldbe sentdirectto E. F. Beckenbach,
University
of
Los Angeles24, California.
California,

ON THE HARMONIC MEAN OF TWO NUMBERS

G. POLYA,StanfordUniversity

We know that x satisfiesthe double inequality

9 ? x ? 11,

but we know nothingelse about the value of x. In such a case, we should take
forx the approximatevalue 9.9; then we can be certain that the relativeerror
cannot exceed 10% and this is the best we can get. The followinglines explain
this example and prove the underlyingtheorem.
About an otherwiseunknownquantity x we have just one piece of definite
information:we know that x is contained between two given positive bounds a
and b,
(1) a < x? b,

where
(2) 0 <a < b.

In choosinga proximatevalue p forx we riska certainerrorp -x and a certain

relativeerror(p-x)/x. We may wish to reduce the risk of an extremeerror,or
the risk of an extremerelative error,to a minimum;and so two differentprob-
lems arise.
PROBLEM I. Find

minm axIp-xI)
P x

and thevalue ofpfor whichit is attainedundertheconditions(1) and (2).

PROBLEM II. Find

min(max Ip-xI /x)

P x

and thevalue ofp for whichit is attainedundertheconditions(1) and (2).

The solution of problem I is obvious and certainlyknown to many persons
although I am not able to give a definitequotation:
26

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1950] MATHEMATICALNOTES 27

a+b b-a
p= - Y minmax I p-x XI = -x
2 p x 2
The solution of problem II is a little less obvious and may be new, but is
certainlyvery little known:
2ab I. |-x|I b- a
p= }~Y min maxI-
aa+b v x x b+a
We can state the second result in words as follows: The approximationthat
yieldstheminimumfor thegreatestpossibleabsolutevalue oftherelativeerror,com-
mittedin approximatingan unknownquantitycontainedbetweentwoknownposi-
tivebounds,is theharmonicmean ofthesebounds.
In both problemswe can findthe desiredp by the same prescription:Choose
p so that the errors(relative errors) committedin the two extremeadmissible
cases, x=a and x=b, are equal in amount, but opposite&insign. This yields
(3) p-a =-(p-b), p =(a + b)/2, p-a =(a + b)/2,
() p-a p-b 2ab p-a b-a
(4) = _ p = ~ _, = ~
a b aa+b a b+a
in problemsI and II, respectively.Following this prescription,we are bound to
obtain the best possible values, by virtueof a classical theoremof Tchebischeff.1
Our problems are so simple, however,that the result can be proved inde-
pendentlyof any special knowledge.I give the proofforthe solution of the less
obvious problem II.
We regard the approximatevalue p as chosen.We focusour attentionon the
more interestingcase in whicha < p ? b. The absolute value of the relative error
depends on x:

--1 when a < x?p

lp _x x
(5) xt
1-- when p <x :5;b.
x
When x varies froma to b, (5) firstdecreases from(p-a)/a to 0 then increases
from0 to (b-p)lb. Therefore,the maximum of (5) must be attained at one
of the,two end-points,at x = a or at x = b. Now,
a p-a b b-p b
b-a
()a+b a a+b b b+a
The right-handside of (6) is a weightedmean of (p -a)/a and (b -p)/b. If these

Lepons surles propri6t6s

i See e.g.SergeBernstein, desfonctions
extr6males analytiquesd'une
variabler6elle,Paris,1926,pp. 2-4.

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28 MATHEMATICALNOTES [January,

quantities are different,

one of them is greaterthan the right-handside of (6),
that is

(7) -max
jp-x >
b- a
x x b+a
It happens only in the case (4) that (7) goes over into an equation. This proves
our theoremin the case in which the value of p lies between a and b. The two
remaining (a priori unplausible) cases, p <a and p>b, can be discussed even
more simply.

NOTE ON CAUCHY'S LIMIT THEOREM

SEN-MINGLENG, NationalPekingUniversity,
Peiping
Cauchy's limit theoremstates that lim.^O. (a,+ . . . +a,)/n = lim.- a. if
the secondlimitexists.We may generalizethistheoremas follows.
THEOREM 1. Let an be a sequenceof real numbers convergentto A: an--A.
Letfn(ozl,a2, a3, . ) be a sequenceofreal-valued functionswhichis definedfor
any suchsequence(a,, a2, a3, . ) that,forsomepositiveinteger h, a,= a, or A
whenv? h and a, = a, whenv> h. Supposethatsuchindividualak is ultimately
immaterial tof,(al, a2, a3, ) and f"(al, a2, a3, . ) is ultimatelya mean,
namelythat
lim [fn (ab 1 .. * i Ck-lo ozk, ak+l, ak+2, ...*

(1)
fn(al) ... , ?0-lx
X A, ak+i, ak+2, . = 0
and
(2) min(al, a k, ak+1, ak+2, . . ) + 1n; fn(al, a*e? , ak+,, ak+2, . )
; max (al, ** , ak, ak+1, ak+2, . . . ) + *n

for every(al, a2, a * ) and for everypositiveintegerk, where7-7nO, n-)O.

Then
f,,(ai, a2i a3, *.**.. A

For we may write

fn(al, a2, a3, ). - A = fn(al, a2, a8, * )- fn(A,a2, a3, )

+ fn(A,a2, a3, * )- fn(A,A, a3, )

+ fn(Aw * * A, a*), aL+,*

- fn(A,I * I A, akf+, ak+2, )

(Ax***A,
+ fn ak+1, ak+2, )-A,

hence(1) impliesthat

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