Data were collected on annual personal time (in hours) taken by a random sample of 16 women and 20 men employed by a medium-sized company. The women took an average of 24.75 hours of personal time per year with a standard deviation of 2.84 hours. The men took an average of 20.5 hours per year of personal time with a standard deviation of 2.75 hours. What is the pooled estimate of the variance? Round to three decimal places.
a. 7.785
b. 12.998
c. 2790
d. 264.672
e. None of the above