The average of 2 number is 20 and their standard deviation 5. Find the...
Problem:
The average of 2 numbers is 20 and their standard deviation is 5. Find the two numbers?
Solution:
To solve this problem, we need to use the formula for the mean and standard deviation of a sample:
- Mean: The sum of all the values divided by the number of values
- Standard Deviation: The square root of the sum of the squared differences between each value and the mean, divided by the number of values minus 1
Step 1:
Let's assume the two numbers to be x and y. We know that:
- The average of the two numbers is 20
- The standard deviation of the two numbers is 5
Using the formula for mean, we can write:
(x + y) / 2 = 20
Step 2:
Next, we can use the formula for standard deviation to write:
sqrt(((x - 20)^2 + (y - 20)^2) / 2) = 5
Step 3:
We can simplify the equation from step 2:
((x - 20)^2 + (y - 20)^2) / 2 = 25
Step 4:
Now, we have two equations from steps 1 and 3:
- (x + y) / 2 = 20
- ((x - 20)^2 + (y - 20)^2) / 2 = 25
Using algebra, we can solve for x and y. One way to do this is to solve for y in the first equation and substitute it into the second equation:
- y = 40 - x
- ((x - 20)^2 + (40 - x - 20)^2) / 2 = 25
Step 5:
We can simplify the equation from step 4:
((x - 20)^2 + (20 - x)^2) / 2 = 25
(x - 20)^2 + (20 - x)^2 = 50
Step 6:
We can expand the equation from step 5:
2x^2 - 80x + 800 = 50
2x^2 - 80x + 750 = 0
Step 7:
Now, we can use the quadratic formula to solve for x:
x = (80 ± sqrt(80