The mean of five whole numbers is 12. If you take away the smallest number, the mean is 16. What is the smallest number?
Let X be the smallest number taken away. S is the sum of the other numbers. Here is what yu know:
(X + S)/5 = 12
S/4 = 16
S = 64
(X + 64)/5 = 12
X = -4
how much does water weigh?
To find the smallest number, we need to use the information given about the mean of the five whole numbers.
Let's assign five variables to represent the five whole numbers: A, B, C, D, and E.
We are given that the mean of the five numbers is 12, which can be expressed as:
(A + B + C + D + E) / 5 = 12
Next, we are told that if we take away the smallest number, the mean becomes 16. This means we subtract the smallest number from the sum of the remaining numbers and divide it by 4 (since we only have 4 numbers left):
(B + C + D + E) / 4 = 16
To solve this problem, we will set up a system of equations to find the values of the variables.
Equation 1: (A + B + C + D + E) / 5 = 12
Equation 2: (B + C + D + E) / 4 = 16
To simplify Equation 2, we can multiply both sides by 4:
B + C + D + E = 64
Now, we can substitute this equation into Equation 1:
(64 + A) / 5 = 12
Multiply both sides by 5:
64 + A = 60
Subtract 64 from both sides:
A = -4
Therefore, the smallest number is -4.