SOLUTION: The average of five whole numbers is 9, the median is 11 and the mode is 11. What is the smallest possible value that any of these whole numbers can have? F)5 G)2 H)1 J) 0

Suppose they are a,b,c,d,e, where .  Since five is an odd
number of numbers, the middle one, c, must be 11. Since their average is 9,




And since c=11





Since the mode is 11, there must be more than one 11 among them,  so either b=11
or d=11 or both.

If b=11, , 
If d=11, , 

We wonder if a can be 0, the smallest whole number. If so

 or , which means

 or 

So d=11, e=12, or b=11, e=12

So the numbers can be a=0, b=11, c=11, d=11, e=12

and so the smallest whole number "a" can be is 0.

Edwin