Final answer:
The geometric mean of 1, 2, 8, and 16 is calculated by multiplying the numbers together and taking the fourth root of the product, which results in a geometric mean of 4.
Step-by-step explanation:
The geometric mean is a type of mean or average, which indicates the central tendency of a set of numbers by using the product of their values. To calculate the geometric mean of 1, 2, 8, and 16, you would multiply the numbers together and then take the nth root, where n is the number of terms. In this case, n is 4 since there are four numbers.
The calculation would be as follows: (1 \times 2 \times 8 \times 16)^(1/4). This equals 2,048^(1/4), which when calculated gives the geometric mean of 4.
This method is useful when dealing with products of different factors and represents the typical value of a set of numbers in multiplicative terms.