Question

You arrive at a bus stop, ready to catch your bus: a line that advertises arrivals every 10 minutes. You glance at your watch and note the time and when the bus finally comes 11 minutes later, you wonder why you always seem to be so unlucky. What is the actual average waiting time in this situation? Explain your answer.

Answer 1

In this situation also average waiting time will be 10 minutes.

Average waiting is 10 minutes means that it takes 10 min to get a bus.

But it is an average

Sometimes it arrives 10 min , sometimes 8 min , sometimes it arrives 12 min later.

But average of this values are 10.

So we say that the average waiting time is 10 min time.

If you get bus at 11 min then it due to variation in the time of bus arrival.

Mean doesn't explain the variation in the data.

So if you're looking at the average or mean then it may take longer or lesser to wait for bus.

But overall average 10 min for bus.