The average number of seeds per apple is the total number of seeds in the 12 apples divided by the number of apples, which is 12. On the graph, the horizontal axis is the number of seeds per apple and the height of each bar is the number of apples with the corresponding number of seeds. The first bar on the left indicates that 2 apples have 3 seeds each, the second bar indicates that 4 apples have 5 seeds each, the third bar indicates that 1 apple has 6 seeds, the fourth bar indicates that 2 apples have 7 seeds each, and the fifth bar indicates that 3 apples have 9 seeds each. Thus, the total number of seeds for the 12 apples is
, and the average number of seeds per apple is
Of the choices given, 6 is closest to 6.08.
Choice A is incorrect; it is the number of apples represented by the tallest bar but is not the average number of seeds for the 12 apples. Choice B is incorrect; it is the number of seeds per apple corresponding to the tallest bar, but is not the average number of seeds for the 12 apples. Choice D is incorrect; a student might choose this by correctly calculating the average number of seeds, 6.08, but incorrectly rounding up to 7.