[music-dsp] Oversampling to improve ADC precision?

[Augmentics]

Hi,

When making measurements by hand, you can increase the accuracy
by REPEATING the measurement.

4 measurements averaged will give you 2 x accuracy
16 measurements will give you 4 x accuracy
and so on i.e. accuracy improves with the ROOT of N

Does the same apply to ADCs?
Will taking the average of say 4 readings improve accuracy by 2 times?

Can running a 10-bit ADC at 16 x normal speed give you the equivalent
of a 12-bit ADC?

Or will the higher sample rate required cancel out this effect?

regards,

Richard (UK)