IXL | Make inferences from multiple samples

Amy is a researcher at Lavelle Institute, and she leads a group conducting a study on sleeping habits. To start, each researcher in the group calls a random sample of 15 adults and asks how many hours they slept the previous night.

Here are the data from one researcher's sample:

6.5

8.5

5.5

9.5

4.5

6.5

What is the median number of hours the adults in this researcher's sample slept the previous night?

hours

ref_doc_title.

Learn with an example

question

In an effort to improve its family plans, a phone service provider wants to determine the average number of texts per day parents send to their teenagers. To collect data, company workers survey small groups of parents and guardians about the number of messages they sent to their teenager the previous day.

Here are the data collected by one worker:

What is the mean number of messages the parents and guardians in this survey sent?

messages

key idea

The mean is one way to measure the center of a data set. To calculate the mean, or average, add all of the numbers in the data set and then divide by the number of values in the set.

solution

To find the mean number of messages, first consider the data.

Then, calculate the mean. Notice that there are 12 values, so you need to divide by 12.

6.5

So, the mean number of messages sent is 6.5

messages.

Looking for more? Try this:

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Teacher tools

Work it out

Not feeling ready yet? These can help:

HH.1Calculate mean, median, mode, and range

HH.New!Make an estimate from sample data

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