Video Transcript
In a recent skating championship, a
skater’s scores for speed were negative one, three, three, negative three, negative
three, and negative two. Determine his average score for
speed in the championship.
We’ve been asked to calculate the
skater’s average score, which usually means the mean average.
The mean of a data set is
calculated by finding the sum of all the values in the data set and dividing it by
how many values there are. This is equivalent to working out
what the skater would have scored if their total remained fixed but they achieved
the same score every time.
This data set contains six
values. The sum of all these values, taking
care to include the relevant signs, is negative three. So, the skater’s average score is
equal to negative three divided by six. As a fraction, this can be
simplified to negative one-half, or we can write the answer as a decimal. We’ve calculated that the skater’s
average score for speed was negative 0.5.
