The following summarizes the number of fiction books read last summer by a sample of 27 students at a certain college.

\begin{tabular}{|c|c|}
\hline Number of students & Number of books \\
\hline 6 & 2 \\
\hline 8 & 3 \\
\hline 13 & 4 \\
\hline
\end{tabular}

What is the mean number of books read? Round your answer to at least one decimal place.

[tex]$\square$[/tex] books



Answer :

To find the mean number of books read by the students, we will follow these steps:

1. Determine the total number of students:
- The table indicates that there are 6 students who read 2 books, 8 students who read 3 books, and 13 students who read 4 books.
- Therefore, the total number of students is [tex]\(6 + 8 + 13 = 27\)[/tex].

2. Calculate the total number of books read:
- We multiply the number of students by the number of books each group read and sum these values:
- For the 6 students who read 2 books each: [tex]\(6 \times 2 = 12\)[/tex]
- For the 8 students who read 3 books each: [tex]\(8 \times 3 = 24\)[/tex]
- For the 13 students who read 4 books each: [tex]\(13 \times 4 = 52\)[/tex]
- Adding these values together gives the total number of books read by all students: [tex]\(12 + 24 + 52 = 88\)[/tex].

3. Calculate the mean number of books read:
- The mean (average) number of books read is calculated by dividing the total number of books read by the total number of students:
[tex]\[ \text{Mean number of books read} = \frac{\text{Total number of books read}}{\text{Total number of students}} = \frac{88}{27} \][/tex]
- Performing this division gives:
[tex]\[ \frac{88}{27} \approx 3.2592 \][/tex]

4. Round the mean to at least one decimal place:
- Rounding [tex]\(3.2592\)[/tex] to one decimal place gives [tex]\(3.3\)[/tex].

Therefore, the mean number of books read is [tex]\(\boxed{3.3}\)[/tex] books.