Jenna dances for 3 hours on Sunday, 2 hours on Monday and Tuesday, 1 hour on Thursday, 1.5 hours on Friday, and 2 hours on Saturday. She did not dance at all on Wednesday. What is the average number of hours she danced each day? Round your answer to the nearest tenth of an hour.
The correct answer and explanation is:
Let’s find the average number of hours Jenna danced each day over the week.
Step 1: Add up the total hours danced
- Sunday: 3 hours
- Monday: 2 hours
- Tuesday: 2 hours
- Wednesday: 0 hours (did not dance)
- Thursday: 1 hour
- Friday: 1.5 hours
- Saturday: 2 hours
Total hours = 3 + 2 + 2 + 0 + 1 + 1.5 + 2 = 11.5 hours
Step 2: Determine the total number of days
There are 7 days in a week.
Step 3: Calculate the average hours per day
Average = Total hours ÷ Number of days
Average = 11.5 ÷ 7 ≈ 1.642857 hours
Step 4: Round the average to the nearest tenth
1.642857 rounds to 1.6 hours per day.
Explanation:
To find an average number of hours Jenna danced each day, we start by calculating the total hours she danced throughout the entire week. This is done by adding the hours for each day, making sure to include days when she didn’t dance (in this case, Wednesday, which contributes 0 hours).
Next, since the average is the total amount spread evenly over the whole time period, we divide the total hours by the number of days in the week — 7. This division tells us how many hours she danced per day on average.
After division, we get a decimal number representing the average hours. Because the question asks for rounding to the nearest tenth, we look at the decimal places to round correctly. Here, the average is approximately 1.64 hours per day, which rounds to 1.6 hours.
This average helps us understand Jenna’s dancing habits over the whole week as a single number, smoothing out the days when she danced more or less. Even though she had days with no dancing, the average gives a good summary measure of her overall dancing activity across the seven days.