Question

During 7 1/2 months of hibernation, a black bear experienced a weight loss of 64.4 pounds.
On average, what was the bear’s weight change per month? Round to the nearest tenth. Enter your answer in the box.

Answer 1

Given:

During 7 1/2 months of hibernation, a bear experienced a weight loss of 64.4 pounds.

To be found: Bear's average weight change (loss) per month.

Average:

• Average of any 'n' numbers is defined as the ratio of the sum of 'n' numbers to 'n'.
• For better understanding, consider $4$ numbers $x_1, x_2, x_3 and x_4$.
• The average of these four numbers can be calculated as:

$Average = (x_1 + x_2 + x_3 + x_4)/4$

Solution:

From the given data,

Number of months for hibernation = 7 1/2 $= 15 / 2$ months

Total weight lost in those months = 64.4 pounds

Let the number of months be "n" and the total weight lost be "W".

Here, the number of numbers is 'one' and hence, the average for the given data is calculated as follows:

Average weight loss per month = $W / n$

Let the weight change per month be "m".

Now, the weight change per month = $64.4 / (15/2)$

$m = (64.4 * 2)/15\\m = (644/5)/15\\m = 644/75\\m = 8.5866$

As given in the question, after rounding to the nearest tenth, the average weight loss per month is 8.6 pounds.

Hence, found.