Math Help

[Emily]

My daughter is in the 5th grade and she (and I) need help with this word problem.

In Mr. Layden's class, three students brought in their baseball card collections. For their three collections, the mode was 126 and the range as 26. What are two possibilities for the number of cards in each student's collection?

Mode = most frequently used number
Range = the highest number minus the lowest number.

This is what i've got.

126-100=26 the range
126,126,100 the mode (I think this is one answer)

I just don't know what to do with the range part.

Can anyone help?

[Zygote]

Well, I suck at math but since the mode is 126 you need at least 2 collections that are 126. Since the range is 26 and there's only one other collection, the third has to be exactly 26 cards more or less than 126.

So I think:
126, 126, 100
126, 126, 152

are the only valid answers. I would definitely get second opinions though...I don't want to be responsible for any bad grades.

[trevorjk]

113-139


113-126-126-139

[trevorjk]

just use 126 as the median and it makes it easy and isnt this cheating

[Emily]

Originally posted by trevorjk
113-139


113-126-126-139

Can you explain this? She needs to learn how to do this.

[Zygote]

113-126-126-139

OK, I'm confused, aren't there only 3 collections...not 4?

[Emily]

Originally posted by trevorjk
just use 126 as the median and it makes it easy and isnt this cheating

not this is not cheating unless i just tell her the answer, which i will not do.

[trevorjk]

113 - first number in range
126
---- median goes right here take 126 plus 126 divide by 2
126
139 - last number in range

so 139-113 equals a range of 26 and since 126 is the number that is in the range the most 126 there for equals the mode... now she will get to the median and mean later but median is the exact middle of the range like i showed before and mean is the average of all the numbers in the range


understand?

[Emily]

I think I got it. Thank you, everyone

Since the mode is 126, then 2 of the kids have to have a collection of 126 cards. If you say that 126 is the hightest number of cards then to get a range of 26, the other kid has to have 100 cards. 126-100=26

Now if the 126 is the lowest number of cards then one kid has to have 152 cards. 152-126=26

Thank you trevorjk, but I think that may be a little above her grade. I understand where you're coming from but she may not. She's going to ask for extra help tomorrow.

[trevorjk]

yeah i just reread everything and realized there was only 3 numbers to work with but i put 4 in and im sure she will be learning median with in a week or so mean should be soon as well

as long as you understand its cool cuase then you should be able to help the mini emily

[Emily]

Originally posted by trevorjk

as long as you understand its cool cuase then you should be able to help the mini emily

the mini emily....rofl. no one has ever called her that. hehehehehee

[trevorjk]

well i dont know her name so i took a guess so was i close

[Emily]

her name is Montez

[trevorjk]

its a nice name, but just for my sake her nick name is mini emily if you dont mind

[Emily]

Originally posted by trevorjk
its a nice name, but just for my sake her nick name is mini emily if you dont mind

i dont mind, i think it's cute.