A student working on a transportation engineering project analyzes traffic flow at an intersection for 20 min. From past data, the average # of cars per minute is 17.6.
(A) What is the expected number of cars in the entire 20 min period?

• A. $18$
• B. $352$
• C. $360$
• D. $340$

Answer: (B)

Verified step by step guidance

1. Step 1: Understand the problem. The problem involves calculating the expected number of cars passing through an intersection over a 20-minute period, given the average number of cars per minute is 17.6.
2. Step 2: Recall the formula for expected value in this context. The expected number of cars over a given time period can be calculated as: \( \text{Expected Number of Cars} = \text{Average Cars per Minute} \times \text{Total Time in Minutes} \).
3. Step 3: Substitute the given values into the formula. Here, the average number of cars per minute is 17.6, and the total time is 20 minutes. The formula becomes: \( \text{Expected Number of Cars} = 17.6 \times 20 \).
4. Step 4: Perform the multiplication to find the expected number of cars. This step involves multiplying 17.6 by 20 to get the result.
5. Step 5: Interpret the result. The calculated value represents the expected number of cars passing through the intersection during the 20-minute observation period.