Question

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a scientist wants to find the average mass of fish living in a large pond. so she will use the masses of a sample of fish from the pond to find the average mass.
answer the questions below.
(a) which unit(s) could be used for the unit of measurement? check all that apply.
□ hours
□ milligrams
□ seconds
□ grams
□ kilograms
(b) which of the procedures below would be the best way to find the average mass?
□ pick 42 fish from a shallow region of the pond and estimate their masses.
□ pick 2 fish from a shallow region of the pond and weigh each of them.
□ randomly pick 42 fish from the entire pond and weigh each of them.
□ randomly pick 2 fish from the entire pond and estimate their masses.

Explanation:

For part (a), mass is measured in grams or kilograms. Milligrams are too small for fish mass (unless very tiny fish, but generally not typical for pond fish), hours and seconds are time units. For part (b), picking 2 fish is too small a sample (low accuracy), picking from only shallow region may not represent the whole pond (bias). Randomly picking 42 fish from the entire pond gives a larger, more representative sample.

Answer:

(a) grams, kilograms; (b) Randomly pick 42 fish from the entire pond and weigh each of them.