136 2108 0965
136 2108 0965
1039900924
1039900924@qq.com
The mean of the first n natural numbers is given by the formula:
[text{Mean} = frac{text{Sum of the first n natural numbers}}{n} = frac{frac{n(n+1)}{2}}{n} = frac{n+1}{2}]
The mean of the first n natural numbers is alwaysTo determine the characteristic of the mean of the first n natural numbers, let's analyze the formula you provided:
[text{Mean} = frac{n+1}{2}]
Since n is a natural number, it starts from 1 and increases by 1 for each subsequent natural number. When we calculate the mean using this formula, we are adding 1 to the number n and then dividing by 2.
Now, consider the following:
- If n is an odd number, then n+1 is an even number. Dividing an even number by 2 will give us another natural number (since all natural numbers are whole numbers, and dividing an even number by 2 results in a whole number).
- If n is an even number, then n+1 is an odd number. Dividing an odd number by 2 will result in a number that is not a whole number but lies between two consecutive natural numbers (specifically, it will be half of the next whole number).
In both cases, the mean will be a number that is at least (frac{1+1}{2} = 1) when n=1 and increases as n increases. Moreover, the mean will always be a number that is positioned exactly halfway between the first number of the sequence (which is 1) and the last number of the sequence (which is n).
Therefore, the mean of the first n natural numbers is always a positive real number and is located exactly at the midpoint between the first and the last number of the sequence. It will be a whole number when n is odd, and a non-integer when n is even, but it will never be a fraction or decimal because, in the case of even n, the mean is the average of two consecutive integers, one of which is the integer part and the other is the fractional part that gets rounded up to the next integer when considering natural numbers.