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Bunuel
One morning Emily recorded the time that it took to read each of her e-mail messages. The times, in seconds, were 32, 18, 20, 29, and 21. How many seconds greater was the average (arithmetic mean) time than the median time?

A. 1
B. 1.5
C. 2.2
D. 2.5
E. 3

Average is \(\frac{32 + 18 + 20 + 29 + 21}{5} = 24\)

Median is 21

So, the average (arithmetic mean) time than the median time by 3 , Answer must be (E)
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List is 18,20,21,29,32
Median =21
Mean= 120/5=24
Difference =3
Hence E
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Bunuel
One morning Emily recorded the time that it took to read each of her e-mail messages. The times, in seconds, were 32, 18, 20, 29, and 21. How many seconds greater was the average (arithmetic mean) time than the median time?

A. 1
B. 1.5
C. 2.2
D. 2.5
E. 3

The average is:

(32 +18 + 20 + 29 + 21)/5 = 120/5 = 24

The 5 values in order are: 18, 20, 21, 29, 32. Thus, the median is 21.

Therefore, the average is 24 - 21 = 3 seconds more than the median.

Answer: E
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Solution



Given
• One morning Emily recorded the time that it took to read each of her e-mail messages.
• The times, in seconds, were 32, 18, 20, 29, and 21.

To find
• By how many seconds average time is greater than the median time.

Approach and Working out

Median Time

To get the median time, let’s arrange the time in increasing order.
    • 18, 20, 21, 29, 32
    • It has total 5 i.e. odd terms and in odd terms, the middle term is the median.
      o Middle terms = (5 + 1)/ 2 = 3rd term
      o 3rd term = 21

Average time

    • = \(\frac{(18 + 20 + 21 + 29 + 32)}{5}\)
    • =\(\frac{120}{5}\) =24

Hence, the average time is 3 greater than the median time.

Thus, option E is the correct answer.

Correct Answer: Option E
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To solve this, lay out the numbers in order: 18, 20, 21, 29, 32. The median can be identified as 21. Calculate the average using the avg formula to get 24. 24-21 = 3, thus the final answer is three!
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