Question

mel is a park ranger at death valley national park in california. she records the elevation relative to sea level at different points in the park.
elevation (m) -32.6 24.7 -8.3 19.1 -8.4
a. what is the mean of the elevations? show your work.

Explanation:

Step1: Find the sum of the elevations

$$\begin{align*} &- 32.6+24.7-8.3 + 19.1-8.4\\ =&(-32.6)+24.7+(-8.3)+19.1+(-8.4)\\ =&[(-32.6)+(-8.3)+(-8.4)]+(24.7 + 19.1)\\ =&(-49.3)+43.8\\ =&-5.5 \end{align*}$$

Step2: Calculate the mean

The number of data points \(n = 5\). The formula for the mean \(\bar{x}=\frac{\sum_{i = 1}^{n}x_{i}}{n}\). Substitute \(\sum_{i=1}^{n}x_{i}=-5.5\) and \(n = 5\) into the formula: \(\bar{x}=\frac{-5.5}{5}=-1.1\)

Answer:

\(-1.1\)