Can someone please tell me how I miss this, I added them up 29 and divided by 8 and came up with 3.625. Below is the question. Please don't send me to other sites and just explain why it is wrong. The number of children, x, belonging to each of eight families registering for swimming was 1, 6, 1, 3, 5, 4, 5, 4. Find the mean, x. (Give answer correct to 2 decimal places.)

Question

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Answer 1

If you are working on the computer, you have to get the answer exactly right.
It asked for the answer to 2 decimal places. If you put three (3.625), it could mark you wrong.
On the other hand, there are two ways to round it to 2 decimal places.
Most people round it up when it is a 5 or more which is truncated, bringing it to 3.63.
The more meticulous way (such as accounting) would round it to an even number, which in this case would be 3.62. This is done to avoid indiscriminently rounding up which will cause a systematic error.