A carpenter has a box of nails of different lengths. You decide to practice your weighted averaging skills to figure out the average length of a nail in the box. You grab two handfuls of nails and count the number of each type of nail. You record your data in the table below.

\begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|c|}
\hline \begin{tabular}{c}
Sample \\
Type
\end{tabular} & \begin{tabular}{c}
Number \\
of Nails
\end{tabular} & \begin{tabular}{c}
Abundance \\
[tex]$(\%)$[/tex]
\end{tabular} & \begin{tabular}{c}
Nail Length \\
[tex]$( cm )$[/tex]
\end{tabular} \\
\hline Short nail & 67 & & 2.5 \\
\hline Medium nail & 18 & & 5.0 \\
\hline Long nail & 10 & & 7.5 \\
\hline
\end{tabular}

What is the percent abundance of the medium nails in your sample?



Answer :

Alright, let’s determine the percent abundance of medium nails in the sample step-by-step:

1. Find the Total Number of Nails:

We start by adding up the number of short, medium, and long nails.
- The number of short nails is 67.
- The number of medium nails is 18.
- The number of long nails is 10.

Adding these together gives the total number of nails:
[tex]\[ \text{Total number of nails} = 67 + 18 + 10 = 95 \][/tex]

2. Calculate the Percent Abundance of Medium Nails:

The percent abundance of a certain type of nail is calculated as the number of that type of nail divided by the total number of nails, and then multiplied by 100 to convert it into a percentage.

For medium nails:
[tex]\[ \text{Percent abundance of medium nails} = \left(\frac{\text{Number of medium nails}}{\text{Total number of nails}}\right) \times 100 \][/tex]
Substituting the numbers:
[tex]\[ \text{Percent abundance of medium nails} = \left(\frac{18}{95}\right) \times 100 \][/tex]

3. Simplify the Calculation:

[tex]\[ \text{Percent abundance of medium nails} = \left(\frac{18}{95}\right) \times 100 \approx 18.947368421052634 \][/tex]

Thus, the percent abundance of medium nails in the sample is approximately [tex]\( 18.95\% \)[/tex].