josemarioamaya wrote:
Two teams are distributing information booklets. Team A distributes 60% more boxes of booklets than Team B, but each box of Team A’s has 60% fewer booklets than each box of Team B’s. Which of the following could be the total number of booklets distributed by the two groups?
A. 2,000
B. 3,200
C. 4,100
D. 4,800
E. 4,900
This
REAL WORLD question requires us to find values that are
positive INTEGERS. So, for example, we can't have 1.3 boxes or 12.44 boxes.
Team A distributes 60% more boxes of booklets than Team BSince we must have positive integers for these values, the SMALLEST possible numbers are as follows:
Team A: 8 boxesTeam B: 5 boxesTeam A has 60% fewer booklets per box than Team BSince we must have positive integers for these values, the SMALLEST possible numbers are as follows:
Team A: 2 booklets per boxTeam B: 5 booklets per boxIn this case, the TOTAL number of booklets distributed by EACH TEAM is as follows:
Team A: (8)(2) = 16Team B: (5)(5) = 25So, the TOTAL =
16 +
25 =
41Check the answer choices....nope,
41 is not an option.
Now recognize that multiples of
41 will also work.
For example, if each team sold TWICE as many boxes than they did in our first scenario, then the total would equal
82.
If each team sold 10 times as many boxes than they did in our first scenario, then the total would equal
410.
And so on.
When we scan the answer choices, we see that C (4100) is a multiple of 41.
Cheers,
Brent