Exercise 6 Page 312

To find the median, make sure the numbers are in numerical order.

Mean: 29
Median: 29.5

Practice makes perfect

We are given a number of Algebra 1 students in each of six classes. Let's find the mean and the median of this data.

Mean

In order to find the mean, or average, we need to find the sum of students in all the classes and divide by the number of classes.

Mean=Sum of values/Number of values

SubstituteValues

Substitute values

Mean=28+30+29+26+31+30/6

AddTerms

Add terms

Mean=174/6

CalcQuot

Calculate quotient

Mean=29

The mean of numbers of students is 29.

Median

The median of a set of data is the middle number, or the average of the two middle numbers, when placed in order from least to greatest. Let's start by writing the numbers in numerical order. 26,28,29, | 30, 30, 31 Since there is an even number of classes, we will need to find the average of the two middle numbers, 29 and 30.

29+30/2

AddTerms

Add terms

59/2

CalcQuot

Calculate quotient

29.5

The median number of students is 29.5.