The police record the speed of vehicles passing a speed checkpoint - OCR - GCSE Maths - Question 2 - 2018 - Paper 6
Question 2
The police record the speed of vehicles passing a speed checkpoint. The speeds are recorded in the table below.
Speed (s mph) | Number of vehicles
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Worked Solution & Example Answer:The police record the speed of vehicles passing a speed checkpoint - OCR - GCSE Maths - Question 2 - 2018 - Paper 6
Step 1
Explain why it is not possible to use the information from this table to calculate the exact value of the mean speed.
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Answer
It is not possible to calculate the exact mean speed from the table because:
Exact Speeds Not Recorded: The table only provides ranges and not the precise speed of each vehicle.
Use of Midpoints: While midpoints can give an approximation, they do not reflect the actual data distribution.
Variability of Speeds: Vehicles within the same range could have significantly different speeds, which we cannot account for without exact values.
Therefore, the mean speed calculated using midpoints only is an estimate, not an exact figure.