The dean of Blotchville University boasts that the average class size there is 20. But

Chapter 4, Problem 16

(choose chapter or problem)

The dean of Blotchville University boasts that the average class size there is 20. But the reality experienced by the majority of students there is quite dierent: they find themselves in huge courses, held in huge lecture halls, with hardly enough seats or Haribo gummi bears for everyone. The purpose of this problem is to shed light on the situation. For simplicity, suppose that every student at Blotchville University takes only one course per semester. (a) Suppose that there are 16 seminar courses, which have 10 students each, and 2 large lecture courses, which have 100 students each. Find the deans-eye-view average class size (the simple average of the class sizes) and the students-eye-view average class size (the average class size experienced by students, as it would be reflected by surveying students and asking them how big their classes are). Explain the discrepancy intuitively. (b) Give a short proof that for any set of class sizes (not just those given above), the deans-eye-view average class size will be strictly less than the students-eye-view average class size, unless all classes have exactly the same size. Hint: Relate this to the fact that variances are nonnegative.