Analyzing Athlete Data from Country C

The question asks us to find the year when the difference between the number of male and female athletes from Country C was the second highest, based on the provided table showing athlete distribution from 2016 to 2021 across five countries.

Extracting Data for Country C

First, let's isolate the athlete data specifically for Country C for each year from the given table.

Calculating the Difference

Next, we calculate the absolute difference between the number of male and female athletes for Country C in each year. We use the absolute difference because we are interested in the magnitude of the difference, not whether males or females were more numerous.

• Year 2016: Difference = $|240 - 140| = 100$
• Year 2017: Difference = $|345 - 165| = 180$
• Year 2018: Difference = $|240 - 140| = 100$
• Year 2019: Difference = $|330 - 210| = 120$
• Year 2020: Difference = $|390 - 315| = 75$
• Year 2021: Difference = $|540 - 345| = 195$

Ranking the Differences

Now, let's list the calculated differences and rank them from highest to lowest:

• 2021: 195 (Highest difference)
• 2017: 180 (Second highest difference)
• 2019: 120
• 2016: 100
• 2018: 100
• 2020: 75 (Lowest difference)

Identifying the Year with the Second Highest Difference

Based on the ranking, the second highest difference in the number of male and female athletes from Country C is 180, which occurred in the year 2017.

Therefore, the difference between the number of male and female athletes from country C was the second highest in the year 2017.

Revision Table: Country C Athlete Difference

Additional Information: Analyzing Data Trends

Analyzing tables like this involves understanding how to extract specific data points, perform calculations (like finding differences, sums, averages, or percentages), and then compare and rank results across different categories or time periods. In this case, we focused only on the difference for Country C, but similar analysis could be done for other countries or for other metrics, such as total athletes per country per year, or changes in numbers over time.

When comparing differences, it's important to decide whether to use the simple difference ($\text{Male} - \text{Female}$) which could be positive or negative, or the absolute difference ($|\text{Male} - \text{Female}|$), which always gives a non-negative value representing the magnitude of the disparity. The question implicitly asks for the magnitude by asking for the "difference" in the context of ranking, making the absolute difference the appropriate calculation.