Question

Lola competes in 100 m wheelchair races. She calculates the information below using her last 4 race times.

Her minimum race time was 17.6 s.
The range of her race times was 4.8 s.
The median of her race times was 20.8 s.
The mode of her race times was 22.4 s.

If Lola includes a new race time of 24.9s in her calculations, how much will the mean change by? Give your answer in seconds (s).

Answer 1

Without the individual race times or their sum, we cannot accurately calculate the change in mean race time for Lola with the inclusion of her new time of 24.9s.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question is about calculating how much the mean (average) race time of Lola will change with the addition of a new race time. When a new data point is added, it affects the mean time, requiring a recalculation. We must first find the mean of Lola's last 4 race times and then recalculate the mean with the addition of the new time of 24.9s. Let's call the sum of the 4 race times S. The mean M is given by M = S / 4. With the new time included, the mean becomes M' = (S + 24.9) / 5. The change in mean, ΔM, is then M' - M. Unfortunately, we do not have enough information to calculate S, as only the minimum time, range, median, and mode are provided, not the individual times nor their sum.

Without additional information, we cannot provide a numeric answer to this question. However, we understand that the form of the calculation requires knowledge of the sum of the race times, which is not provided here.