Easy Average problem or is it?

faraz_jeddah wrote:If the terms of a sequence t1, t2, ....tn, what is the value of n?
1. The sum of the n terms is 3,124.
2. The average (arithmetic mean) of the n terms is 4.

I was going through this problem and the obvious answer looks like C.

But I wanted to check if I were to replicate this problem on a smaller scale.

What if the problem were restated as

1. the sum of the terms is 9
2. The average is 3

In this case
I could say the series is 0,1,8 where sum is 9 and average is 3. ==> n = 3

I could also say the series is 1,2,3,3 where sum is 9 and average is NOT 3 BUT 9/4 2.25 but n = 4.

My question is what is the impact of the word "series" in the question?
Am I overthinking this simple problem?

vinay1983 wrote: Good to see you back. I changed the average from 3 to 2.25. Happens:)

Series gives us a concrete idea about the numbers we should consider. Like in the above question you have posted, if it would have been" terms, which are positive and in series (such as A.P or G.P) would gives us definite numbers to work with.Also I feel the no. of numbers is restricted by the average. In this case to get 3 as average we should have N numbers such that we get a integer as a result. Otherwise the whole thing would be not of use to calculate.

It's a good point though, that you have raised!

Hope I am right!

For the question above, my answer is C