A group of friends count the coins they have in their pockets. They record how many cents they each have in pennies. Another friend counts his coins and has no pennies. If 0 is added to the line plot, what effects will it have on the mean and median?

The median will change ______ the mean.

Question

A group of friends count the coins they have in their pockets. They record how many cents they each have in pennies. Another friend counts his coins and has no pennies. If 0 is added to the line plot, what effects will it have on the mean and median?

The median will change ______ the mean.

Quizzma Team · Answer

The median will change less than the mean.

Explanation: The mean is affected by every value in the data set, including zeros, which can lower the overall average when included. However, the median (the middle value when all values are sorted) may not change if the zero does not alter the middle position within the ordered list of coins. In this case, adding zero can skew the mean downward without significantly affecting the median, especially if there are enough higher values in the dataset.

A group of friends count the coins they have in their pockets. They record how many cents they each have in pennies. Another friend counts his coins and has no pennies. If 0 is added to the line plot, what effects will it have on the mean and median? The median will change compared to the mean.

1 Answer