Question

A 2-column table with 9 rows. The first column is labeled year with entries 1970, 1975, 1980, 1985, 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010. The second column is labeled pounds of trash with entries 3.25, 3.25, 3.66, 3.83, 4.57, 4.52, 4.74, 4.69, 4.44.

The table shows the average number of pounds of trash generated per person per day in the United States from 1970 to 2010. Use the statistics calculator to calculate the mean and median. Round the answers to the nearest hundredth.

Answer 1

The median of a list of numbers is the center number when you order the numbers from least to greatest.

Since there are 9 numbers; the center number is the fifth number. Four numbers below and four numbers above. Median is 4.44 and the mean or average is 4.09.

Explanation:

List in order from least to greatest

(3.25, 3.25, 3.66, 3.83) 4.44 ( 4.52, 4.57, 4.69, 4.74) Notice 4 numbers below 4.44 are lower and 4 numbers above 4.44 are higher. So the median number is 4.44

For the mean you add all the number and divide the sum by the number of numbers you have. We know you have 9 numbers from the first part. So, add the numbers from the list (3.25 +3.25+ 3.66 + 3.83 + 4.44 + 4.52 + 4.47 + 4.69 + 4.74) = 36.85 Then divide by 9 = 4.09