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VP_Tatiana
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Hi Kris,
That's a good question. To be honest (and I was a math major), I'm not sure what the range of a one element set would be... if it would be 0 or the value. Anyone else?
We can actually solve the problem without this knowledge, though.
Ex 1: Mean is greater than range. Look at the set {4, 4}. The range is 0 and the mean is 4.
Ex 2: Range is greater than mean. Look at the set {1, 4}. The range is 3, and the mean is 2.5.
Since we can come up with two different answers, we do not have sufficient information to determine if the range is greater than the mean of a non-empty set.
Tatiana
That's a good question. To be honest (and I was a math major), I'm not sure what the range of a one element set would be... if it would be 0 or the value. Anyone else?
We can actually solve the problem without this knowledge, though.
Ex 1: Mean is greater than range. Look at the set {4, 4}. The range is 0 and the mean is 4.
Ex 2: Range is greater than mean. Look at the set {1, 4}. The range is 3, and the mean is 2.5.
Since we can come up with two different answers, we do not have sufficient information to determine if the range is greater than the mean of a non-empty set.
Tatiana
Tatiana Becker | GMAT Instructor | Veritas Prep
GMAT/MBA Expert
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Ian Stewart
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VP_Tatiana wrote:Hi Kris,
That's a good question. To be honest (and I was a math major), I'm not sure what the range of a one element set would be... if it would be 0 or the value. Anyone else?
The range of a one-element set is zero. This follows from any definition of the range (range = largest - smallest; range = largest distance between any elements in the set; range = distance of the smallest interval in which all data points can be found). Note that the range certainly will not be equal to the value of the single element in the set, because then you could easily violate one of the fundamental properties of the range: if you add an element to a set, the range can never decrease.
You will, however, never be tested on this type of technicality on the GMAT.
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VP_Tatiana
- GMAT Instructor
- Posts: 189
- Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 10:55 pm
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Thanks Ian! That's what my gut told me, but a weird range function in a mathematical program I found online returned the value. That's why math people and CS people are rivals!
; )
Tatiana
; )
Tatiana
Tatiana Becker | GMAT Instructor | Veritas Prep
