Question

mary has scored 23, 24, 21, and 30 points in her four basketball games so far. how many points does she need to score in her next game so that her average (mean) is 24 points per game?

Explanation:

Step1: Calculate sum of first 4 scores

$23 + 24+21 + 30=98$

Step2: Set up equation for mean

Let the score in the 5th game be $x$. The mean of 5 scores is $\frac{98 + x}{5}$, and we want this mean to be 24. So we have the equation $\frac{98 + x}{5}=24$.

Step3: Solve the equation

Multiply both sides of the equation by 5: $98 + x=24\times5$.
$98 + x = 120$.
Subtract 98 from both sides: $x=120 - 98$.
$x = 22$.

Answer:

22