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This suggested edit was approved and applied to the post over 1 year ago by Derek Elkins‭.

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  • The problem is indeed that you aren't computing the average distance. What you're computing is a *median* distance. Essentially, you are equally weighting points that are just slightly outside $C_2$ and points that are near the boundary of $C_1$, but those contribute different amounts to the average distance. To reinforce this, note that if you did an arbitrary area-preserving transformation that maintained which points were in or out of $C_2$, then you could have half the points be at any arbitrary distance allowing you to increase the average distance arbitrarily. Imagine $C_2$ being the cross-section of a metal cylinder and everything outside of $C_2$ (and in $C_1)$ being goop that you could stretch arbitrarily. You could stretch that goop into a dumbbell shape with a very long and narrow connecting part.
  • A typical, fairly generic definition of the average value, $\bar f$, of a function, $f$, over a continuous domain, $D$, is $\bar f = \int_D f(x) dx / \int_D dx$. In probabilistic language, this would be the *expected value* of $f$ if $D$ were the sample space with uniform probability for each point. In this case, $D$ is the disc of radius $R$, so the denominator integral is just its area, namely $\pi R^2$. The numerator integral can be written as $\int_0^{2\pi}\int_0^R r^2 d\theta dr$. The perhaps not immediately obvious part is why the integrand is $r^2$ and not just $r$. Intuitively, this is because changing $\theta$ by a small amount changes where you are in direct proportion to the distance from the center of rotation, i.e. $r$. If the $r^2$ isn't obvious to you, you should try to derive it yourself. One, somewhat tedious, approach is to rewrite the integral in Cartesian coordinates and do a change of variables. A more direct way would be to look up what polar coordinates means not just for the coordinates themselves but also the tangent vectors.
  • The result you quoted then follows through basic integration, $$\int_0^{2\pi}\int_0^R r^2 dr d\theta = 2\pi\int_0^R r^2 dr = 2\pi R^3/3$$ which is divided by $\pi R^2$.
  • The problem is indeed that you aren't computing the average distance. What you're computing is a *median* distance. Essentially, you are equally weighting points that are just slightly outside $C_2$ and points that are near the boundary of $C_1$, but those contribute different amounts to the average distance. To reinforce this, note that if you did an arbitrary area-preserving transformation that maintained which points were in or out of $C_2$, then you could have half the points be at any arbitrary distance allowing you to increase the average distance arbitrarily. Imagine $C_2$ being the cross-section of a metal cylinder and everything outside of $C_2$ (and in $C_1)$ being goop that you could stretch arbitrarily. You could stretch that goop into a dumbbell shape with a very long and narrow connecting part.
  • A typical, fairly generic definition of the average value, $\bar f$, of a function, $f$, over a continuous domain, $D$, is $\bar f = \int_D f(x) dx / \int_D dx$. In probabilistic language, this would be the *expected value* of $f$ if $D$ were the sample space with uniform probability for each point. In this case, $D$ is the disc of radius $R$, so the denominator integral is just its area, namely $\pi R^2$. The numerator integral can be written as $\int_0^{2\pi}\int_0^R r^2 drd\theta$. The perhaps not immediately obvious part is why the integrand is $r^2$ and not just $r$. Intuitively, this is because changing $\theta$ by a small amount changes where you are in direct proportion to the distance from the center of rotation, i.e. $r$. If the $r^2$ isn't obvious to you, you should try to derive it yourself. One, somewhat tedious, approach is to rewrite the integral in Cartesian coordinates and do a change of variables. A more direct way would be to look up what polar coordinates means not just for the coordinates themselves but also the tangent vectors.
  • The result you quoted then follows through basic integration, $$\int_0^{2\pi}\int_0^R r^2 dr d\theta = 2\pi\int_0^R r^2 dr = 2\pi R^3/3$$ which is divided by $\pi R^2$.

Suggested over 1 year ago by TheCodidacter, or rather ACodidacter‭