Question

Please help! Create a set of five positive numbers (repeats allowed) that have a median of 10 and a mean of 14. What thought process did you use to create your numbers?

Answer 1

Alright, since there are 5 numbers, and the mean (or average) is (sum)/(amount of numbers), we have (sum)/5=14. Multiplying both sides by 5, we have the sum being 80. The median of 10 means that in a, b, c, d, e, 10 has to be c and the numbers have to be in ascending order. A and b must be 10 or lower, while d and e must be 10 or higher. Putting some random numbers in, we can have 1, 1, 10, 15, and e. We left e there because the sum needs to be 80, and since 1+1+10+15=27, 80-27=53=e. This, however, would not work if e was less than 10 and we therefore would have needed to make some numbers lower to compensate for this. Our answer is therefore 1, 1, 10, 15, 53