Question

Find x and y so that the ordered data set as a mean of 42and a median of 35.

17,22,26,29,34,x,42,67,70,56,y soln: 17+22+26+29+34+x+42+67+70+56+y= 363+x+y (363+x+y)/11=42 y=99/x x is median

Answer 1

Because the median is the average of the 5th & 6th items of data (because n = 10), the 6th item, x, must be 36 so that the median comes out to be 35. Then the sum of the first 9 items is 307 + 36 =343; the sum of all ten items is 343 + yand mean = (343 + y) /10 = 42. This gives y = 420 - 343 = 77