The table below shows how many minutes Mary spent exercising each day for the last two weeks.



Mary's Time Spent Exercising
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
Week 1 0 min 45 min 45 min 40 min 50 min 35 min 0 min
Week 2 0 min 45 min 50 min 45 min 40 min 50 min 35 min
Which of the following best explains why the mean is NOT an appropriate indicator of how much time Mary spends exercising on a typical day?
A.
There is more than one mean.
B.
The mean is not an integer value.
C.
The mean is skewed by the days Mary did not exercise.
D.
The set of data points is too small.

C. The mean is skewed by the days Mary did not exercise.

To determine the best answer, let's examine the options:

A. There is more than one mean.
This statement is incorrect. The mean is a single value that represents the average of a set of data points. In this case, there is only one mean.

B. The mean is not an integer value.
This statement is also incorrect. The mean can be a decimal or fractional value, and it is not restricted to whole numbers.

C. The mean is skewed by the days Mary did not exercise.
This statement is the most accurate explanation. The mean is sensitive to extreme values. In this case, Mary did not exercise on certain days, which would bring the average down. For example, if we take the mean of Week 1, which includes two days with 0 minutes of exercise, the mean will be significantly lower than if we only consider the days where Mary did exercise. Therefore, the mean does not give an accurate representation of Mary's typical exercise time.

D. The set of data points is too small.
This statement is not accurate when considering the appropriateness of the mean as an indicator of Mary's typical exercise time. The size of the data set does not affect the suitability of the mean as a measure of central tendency.

Therefore, the best explanation for why the mean is not an appropriate indicator of how much time Mary spends exercising on a typical day is:

C. The mean is skewed by the days Mary did not exercise.

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