The mean of five numbers is 8. If one of the numbers is removed from the list, the mean becomes 7. what is the number that was removed.

I could not figure this out.

Suppose the numbers were

4, 6, 8, 10, 12

Which number could you remove to get a mean of 7?

"The mean of five numbers is 8"

would imply that the total of the 5 numbers had to be 40
So now you have only 4 numbers with a mean of 7
which implies that the new total is 28

What is 40 - 28 ?

thanks for the explaning it. I understand that much better

DAB SON !

To find the number that was removed, let's approach the problem step by step.

Step 1: Find the sum of the five numbers.
If the mean of the five numbers is 8, then the sum of the five numbers is 8 multiplied by 5, which is 40.

Step 2: Find the sum of the four remaining numbers.
If the mean becomes 7 after removing one of the numbers, then the sum of the remaining four numbers is 7 multiplied by 4, which is 28.

Step 3: Find the number that was removed.
The difference between the sum of the five numbers (40) and the sum of the remaining four numbers (28) will give us the number that was removed.

40 - 28 = 12

Therefore, the number that was removed is 12.