The 8 students in Mrs. Carter's class were asked how many minutes it takes them to get to school in the morning.

Question

Here is what they answered:5, 13, 13, 4, 13, 4, 16, 13 Find the mean and median travel times for these students. If necessary, round your answers to the nearest tenth

Answer 1

We gotta love averages!

Times: 5, 13, 13, 4, 13, 4, 16, 13

Times in order: 4, 4, 5, 13, 13, 13, 13, 16

Mean (or "arithmetic mean")

sum of all items / number of items

(4+4+5+13+13+13+13+16 ) / 8 = 81/8 = 10.1 minutes

Median

arrange in order, then middle item (or average of 2 middle items if even number of items)

( 13 + 13 ) / 2 = 13 minutes

and two bonus terms...

Mode

most popular

13 minutes (appears 4 times)

Range

from smallest to largest

12 minutes

Note that a question "what is the average of..." has several possible answers, so most likely the question will specify which average is required, or your answer would specify which you are giving. When people refer to "average" usually they mean the mean. :-)