2012 AMC 10A Problems/Problem 13

Problem

An iterative average of the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 is computed the following way. Arrange the five numbers in some order. Find the mean of the first two numbers, then find the mean of that with the third number, then the mean of that with the fourth number, and finally the mean of that with the fifth number. What is the difference between the largest and smallest possible values that can be obtained using this procedure?

$\textbf{(A)}\ \frac{31}{16}\qquad\textbf{(B)}\ 2\qquad\textbf{(C)}\ \frac{17}{4}\qquad\textbf{(D)}\ 3\qquad\textbf{(E)}\ \frac{65}{16}$

Solution

The minimum and maximum can be achieved with the orders $5, 4, 3, 2, 1$ and $1, 2, 3, 4, 5$ .

$5,4,3,2,1 \Rightarrow \frac92,3,2,1 \Rightarrow \frac{15}{4},2,1 \Rightarrow \frac{23}{8},1 \Rightarrow \frac{31}{8}$

$1,2,3,4,5 \Rightarrow \frac32,3,4,5 \Rightarrow \frac94,4,5 \Rightarrow \frac{25}{8},5 \Rightarrow \frac{65}{8}$

The difference between the two is $\frac{65}{8}-\frac{31}{8}=\frac{34}{8}=\boxed{\textbf{(C)}\ \frac{17}{8}}$ .

2012 AMC 10A (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 12	Followed by Problem 14
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2012 AMC 10A Problems/Problem 13

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