Question

each of 7 students reported the number of movies they saw in the past year. this is what they reported.
12, 4, 12, 5, 17, 8, 13
find the median and mean number of movies that the students saw.
if necessary, round your answers to the nearest tenth.
your answer
(a) median: movies
(b) mean: 10.1 movies

Explanation:

Step1: Find the Median

First, we need to order the data set from least to greatest. The data set is \(12, 4, 12, 5, 17, 8, 13\). After ordering, we get \(4, 5, 8, 12, 12, 13, 17\). Since there are 7 (an odd number) data points, the median is the middle value, which is the 4th value in the ordered list. So the median is \(12\).

Step2: Verify the Mean (Optional, but let's check)

To find the mean, we sum all the values and divide by the number of values. The sum of the data set: \(4 + 5 + 8 + 12 + 12 + 13 + 17 = 71\). There are 7 students, so the mean is \(\frac{71}{7}\approx10.1\) (which matches the given value).

Answer:

(a) Median: \(12\) movies
(b) Mean: \(10.1\) movies