You can assume that the given flow$\_$rate is always a list. This list can be empty. If the list is not empty, then its elements are either int or float. In order for the computation described above to be carried out, the number of elements in flow$\_$rate must be greater than or equal to the product of the algorithmic parameters segment$\_$len and min$\_$segment; you should only carry out the computation if there are enough data in flow$\_$rate.