Answer: Western states
How we got our confident answer:
We placed each state in the east or
west in Microsoft excel. (The attached file.) After that we added
the population according to whether they were in the east or the
west. We did that according to the Mississippi River. When we did
the average, we found that the western states tended to have a larger
population. The reason this occurred was because although there was
a larger total of eastern states, there were more states to compute
for the average.
Yes, we are from New Jersey.
Thank You!
Brent, Matt, Jack, Lee
(download their Excel file: AveragePopBLMJ.xls )
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Answer: Eastern states
How we got our confident
answer:
We placed each state in the east or
west in Microsoft excel.(The attached file.) After that we added
the population according to whether they were in the east or the
west. We did that according to the Mississippi River. When we did
the average, we found that the eastern states tended to have a larger
population. The reason this occurred was because although there was
a larger total of eastern states, there were more states to compute
for the average.
This is our revised answer due to the
fact that we messed up our formulas. Thank you for taking the time to
review our answers and e-mail us back
(download their second Excel file: AveragePopBLMJRevised.xls
)
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The lesson, of course, is that smart people
occasionally make mistakes, and are clever enough to correct them.
Now, I'm not saying which spreadsheet -- if any -- is right, mind
you, but you can look at the two yourselves and see where (or
whether) Brent, Matt, Jack, and Lee made their mistake.
In addition, the problem called for TWO
different ways of asking the question. They have provided one. Anyone
out there care to contribute a second?
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