Question

Five whole numbers are written in order

4 6 x y 10
The mean of the five numbers are the same
work out the values of x and y?
whats x and y?

Answer 1

Because the mean and the median are the same value, we will see that x = 7 and y = 8.
How to get the value of x and y?
We know that for the set
{4, 6, x, y, 10}
The mean and the median are the same value.
The median is the middle value, which is x, and the mean is:
M = (4 + 6 + x + y + 10)/5
Then we have that:
(4 + 6 + x + y + 10)/5 = x
Now let's solve this:
(4 + 6 + x + y + 10) = 5x
20 + x + y = 5x
20 + y = 4x
And x and y are whole numbers. Then we can take x = 7 to get:
20 + y = 4*7
y = 28 - 20 = 8
Then we have x = 7 and y = 8.