Maya is the manager for the track team. She created a table to compare finish times from the second practice to the first practice.

Question

100 m Dash Finish Time Comparison
Runner
Second practice time compared to first practice time
Joshua
+1.03
Kedwin
–0.97
Leila
–0.95
Miguel
+1.1
Nicole
–0.87

Maya claims that the runners’ order of most improved to least improved is Miguel, Joshua, Nicole, Leila, and Kedwin. Which statement describes whether Maya is correct?
Maya is correct because she compared each digit in the same place value. Miguel added the most time to his sprint so he is most improved.
Maya is incorrect because –0.87 < –0.95 < –0.97. Runners that decrease times are improving, and those that add time are not improving.
Maya is incorrect because 1.1 < 1.03. She should switch the order of Joshua and Miguel because Joshua added more time to his run.
Maya is incorrect because she listed the runners from least improved to most improved. Runners that decreased times are improving, and those that add time are not improving.

Answer 1

The correct statement that describes whether Maya is correct is:

Maya is incorrect because –0.87 < –0.95 < –0.97. Runners that decrease times are improving, and those that add time are not improving.

This is because improvement in finish times is defined by a decrease in time, so runners with negative values (indicating they improved) should be ranked according to how much they decreased their times, while runners with positive values (indicating they took longer) represent a decline in performance. Thus, Maya's ranking does not correctly reflect which runners improved the most compared to their previous times.