Question

Suppose we have the following measurements for the numbers of red blood cells (RBC's) in 5 men

(measured in millions of RBC's per ul):
48 6.3 5.8 55 5.6
a) Calculate the sample mean
b) Calculate the sample median.

Answer 1

The sample mean of the red blood cells (RBC's) per microliter is 24.14 million, and the sample median is 6.3 million. The mean was calculated by summing the RBC counts and dividing by the number of observations, and the median was determined by ordering the values and selecting the middle one.

Step-by-step explanation:

To calculate the sample mean of the red blood cells (RBC's) measured in millions per microliter (ul), you sum all the RBC counts and divide by the number of observations. In this case, we add 48, 6.3, 5.8, 55, 5.6 to get a total, then divide by 5, the number of men.

1. Calculate the sum of the RBC counts: 48 + 6.3 + 5.8 + 55 + 5.6 = 120.7 million RBCs per ul.
2. Divide by the number of observations: 120.7 / 5 = 24.14 million RBCs per ul. Thus, the sample mean is 24.14 million RBCs per ul.

To find the sample median, we first need to order the measurements from smallest to largest: 5.6, 5.8, 6.3, 48, 55. Since we have an odd number of observations, the median is the middle number, which is the third number in the ordered list.

• The median of the RBC counts is 6.3 million RBCs per ul.