The list shows the weight in pounds of 6 puppies at birth. 3, 1.6, 2.8, 2.5, 1.7, 2.8What is the mean absolute deviation of these numbers?

Question

a. 14.4
b. 1.9
c. 2.4
d. 0.5

Answer 1

The first step is to find the mean of the weights:

Mean = (3 + 1.6 + 2.8 + 2.5 + 1.7 + 2.8) / 6 = 14.4 / 6 = 2.4

Next, we find the absolute deviations of each weight from the mean:

|3 - 2.4| = 0.6
|1.6 - 2.4| = 0.8
|2.8 - 2.4| = 0.4
|2.5 - 2.4| = 0.1
|1.7 - 2.4| = 0.7
|2.8 - 2.4| = 0.4

Then, find the mean of these absolute deviations:

Mean Absolute Deviation = (0.6 + 0.8 + 0.4 + 0.1 + 0.7 + 0.4) / 6 = 2 / 6 = 0.33

Therefore, the mean absolute deviation is approximately 0.33. The closest answer choice is d. 0.5.