Bunuel
A city’s school board merged the city’s two rival high schools to form one new high school, which then had 4500 students. 10% of the students at high school A and 15% of students at high school B were in the marching band. If all marching band members joined the new school’s marching band, which then had 570 members, how many students did school A have before the merge?
A. 2100
B. 2200
C. 2300
D. 2400
E. 2500
We can let A = the number of students from school A, and B = the number of students from school B. Since the combined schools had 4,500 students, we know that A + B = 4,500.
We are also given that 10% of the students at high school A and 15% of the students at high school B were in the marching band, which has 570 members. Thus:
0.1A + 0.15B = 570
10A + 15B = 57,000
We can isolate B in the first equation and we have: B = 4,500 - A.
We now can substitute 4,500 - A for B in the equation 10A + 15B = 57,000:
10A + 15(4,500 - A) = 57,000
10A + 67,500 - 15A = 57,000
-5A = -10,500
A = 2,100
Answer: A