Bizarre question given to student at learning center

Question

I work at a learning center and this problem came up during a lesson. The student stared at it for a while, and after looking at it myself, I am also puzzled.

An average of 368 students attend each of Jinlow Elementary School's home soccer games. About how many students would attend eight home games?

Answer 1

Each home game has, on average, 368 students attending. I think what it's asking you to do is simply multiply that average per game times eight games, i.e., $$368\text{ $\frac{\text{students}}{\text{game}}$ } \times 8\text{ games } = 2944\text{ students total.}$$

It is an oddly-worded question. However, with the information given (and for the grade level it's probably targeted towards), it seems to be asking for just the total attendance for the eight games, to have students realize that you can multiply the average of a list by the number of items in that list to get the sum.

Answer 2

If $X_1,\dots,X_8$ are random variables each having expectation (or average) 368, $$ \mathbb E(X_1)=\dots=\mathbb E(X_8)=368, $$ then we have $$ \mathbb E(X_1+\dots+X_8)=8\times 368 = 2,944. $$