Question

Mariah works at a zoo. She was looking at some data showing the masses of their 5 African elephants. The mean mass of the elephants was 3,800 kg, and the median mass was 3,600 kg. The heaviest elephant, named Omar, was recorded as 6,000 kg.

Mariah found out that Omar's mass was recorded incorrectly, and that Omar actually weighed 7,000 kg.
How will Omar's mass increasing affect the mean and median?

Answer 1

Omar's mass increasing from 6,000 kg to 7,000 kg will affect the mean and median of the elephant masses.

1. Mean:
The mean is the average of all the data points. Currently, the mean mass is calculated using the sum of the masses divided by the total number of elephants. When Omar's mass is updated from 6,000 kg to 7,000 kg, the sum of masses will increase. Since the mean is affected by the total sum, the mean will increase as well.

2. Median:
The median is the middle value when the data is arranged in ascending order. Currently, the median is 3,600 kg, which is lower than the heaviest elephant's (Omar's) original recorded mass of 6,000 kg. When Omar's mass is corrected to 7,000 kg, it becomes the new heaviest mass. As a result, the median will not be affected by this change since it is determined by the position of the middle value and not the actual values themselves.

In summary, Omar's mass increasing from 6,000 kg to 7,000 kg will increase the mean mass of the elephants, but it will not affect the median mass.