We can see here that the the average drying time, to the nearest thousandth, is 0.282.
To find the average drying time, we need to calculate the mean of the given sequence.
The given sequence represents the drying time of 5 random trials: r1 = 0.17, r2 = 0.22, r3 = 0.29, r4 = 0.31, and r5 = 0.42.
To calculate the average, we add up all the values and divide by the number of trials:
Average drying time = (r1 + r2 + r3 + r4 + r5) / 5
Inputting the values:
Average drying time = (0.17 + 0.22 + 0.29 + 0.31 + 0.42) / 5
Calculating the sum:
Average drying time = 1.41 / 5
Simplifying:
Average drying time ≈ 0.282
Therefore, the average drying time, rounded to the nearest thousandth, is approximately 0.282.