A missing-value problem with a mean and a median gives you two kinds of information. The mean fixes the total, while the median describes the ordered middle. Multiply the mean by the count, use a Desmos list to total the known values, then find the gap. The trap is treating the median as though it must be one of the integers.
Hints
- Hint 1
For ten values, the median is halfway between the fifth and sixth values in order. A median of doesn't mean an integer in the set must equal . Which given values could occupy those middle positions?
- Hint 2
The mean is the total divided by the number of values. Work backward: multiply the mean by the count to find what all ten integers must add up to.
- Hint 3
Put the nine known integers in a Desmos list and find their total. Only one integer is missing, so it must account for the entire difference between that total and the total for all ten.
Step-by-step
Recover the total, then find the missing integer
Step 1See what the median tells you
With ten values, the median is halfway between the fifth and sixth values in order. If the missing integer is greater than , those positions hold and . They're equally far from , so the median would be . That tells you where the missing integer could go, but not its exact value.
- Step 2
Find the total all ten must reach
The mean is the total divided by the count, so multiply the mean by the count to recover the total. Calling the total :
- Step 3
Total the nine known integers
Type the nine given integers as a list named , then type . Desmos prints , the sum of the nine known values.
- Step 4
Write the missing-value equation
Let be the one missing integer. Its value plus the known sum must equal the total for all ten:
The difference belongs to one integer, so don't divide it by ten again.
- Step 5
Solve and check the median
Type . Desmos uses for the unknown and to find its value; under PARAMETERS, it shows . Because is greater than , it goes last, is distinct from the other integers, and leaves and in the middle as checked earlier. The remaining integer is . Grid in 51.