I have a frequency spectrum of a particular phenomenon (it is the Fast Fourier Transform of the stress response in iron to an induced strain). In short, the stress oscillates and I wish to analyse the frequency of the oscillations.
A typical frequency plot looks like the attached
I want to represent these frequencies as a single number, some sort of "characteristic frequency". I can obviously choose the frequency with the maximum amplitude, OR some sort of weighted "average".
I can calculate the weighted arithmetic, geometric and harmonic mean and of course, these averages vary in magnitude.
The question is, of these three averages, which is more "correct" or rather, more "representative" for this sort of data? And why?
kind regards W