How do you determine the mean growth of three plants measured at 10 cm, 20 cm, and 15 cm?

• A. Add the measurements and divide by three
• B. Choose the highest measurement
• C. Average the highest and lowest measurements
• D. Multiply all measurements together

Answer: (A)

To determine the mean growth of the three plants measured at 10 cm, 20 cm, and 15 cm, the appropriate method involves calculating the average. The mean is obtained by summing all the measurements and then dividing by the total number of measurements.

In this case, the sum of the measurements is 10 cm + 20 cm + 15 cm, which equals 45 cm. Since there are three plants, dividing this total by three gives a mean (or average) growth of 15 cm. This approach is fundamental in statistics for finding the central tendency of a set of values. It is crucial to use the mean when you want to understand the overall growth of a group rather than just focusing on specific individual measurements.

Other options would not provide a complete picture: simply selecting the highest measurement ignores other values, averaging the highest and lowest would not reflect the true average growth, and multiplying all measurements would yield a product rather than an average, which is not relevant in this context.