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# At a certain company, average (arithmetic mean)number of

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At a certain company, average (arithmetic mean)number of  [#permalink]

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Updated on: 24 Nov 2013, 11:03
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17
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Difficulty:

45% (medium)

Question Stats:

63% (01:26) correct 37% (01:43) wrong based on 473 sessions

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At a certain company, average (arithmetic mean) number of years of experience is 9.8 years for male employees and 9.1 years for the female employees. What is the ratio of the number of the company's male employees and the number of the company's female employees?

(1) There are 52 male employees at the company
(2) The average number of years of experience for the company's male and female employees combined is 9.3 years.

Originally posted by prashi82 on 25 Aug 2012, 15:38.
Last edited by Bunuel on 24 Nov 2013, 11:03, edited 2 times in total.
Renamed the topic.
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Re: At a certain company, average (arithmetic mean)number of  [#permalink]

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14 Feb 2015, 21:08
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Hi All,

This DS question is ultimately about Weighted Averages.

We're told that the average work experience (at a particular company) for men is 9.8 years and the average work experience for women is 9.1 years. We're asked for the RATIO of Men to Women at this company.

In these types of question, we don't necessarily need the number of men and the number of women to find the ratio of men to women...

Fact 1: 52 males work at the company.

This tells us nothing about the number of women working at the company.
Fact 1 is INSUFFICIENT.

Fact 2: The average work experience for ALL employees is 9.3 years.

Using this Fact, and the information in the prompt, I'm going to set up a Weighted Average calculation:

M = # of male employees
F = # of female employees

(9.8M + 9.1F)/(M+F) = 9.3

9.8M + 9.1F = 9.3M + 9.3F
0.5M = 0.2F

5M = 2F

At this point, if you recognize that we have a ratio, then you can stop working. If you want to do the next "math step", then that's fine though...

M/F = 2/5

We now have the ratio that we're asked for.
Fact 2 is SUFFICIENT.

Final Answer:

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Re: At a certain company, average (arithmetic mean)number of  [#permalink]

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26 Aug 2012, 00:30
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prashi82 wrote:
At a certain company, average (arithmetic mean)number of years of experience is 9.8 years for male employees and 9.1 years for the female employees. What is the ratio of the number of the company's male employees and the number of the company's female employees?

(1) There are 52 male employees at the company
(2) The average number of years of experience for the company's male and female employees combined is 9.3 years.

(1) Definitely not sufficient, we don't know neither the number of women, nor the combined average for the company.

(2) Sufficient. The combined average being 9.3, the differences form this average are 0.5 and 0.2, therefore the ratio between the male and female employees is 0.2:0.5=2:5.

Answer B

This is a question involving weighted average.
Having two quantities $$Q_1$$ and $$Q_2$$ with averages $$a_1$$ and $$a_2$$ respectively, if the combined average is $$a$$, and let assume that $$a_1>a>a_2,$$ then we can write:

$$\frac{a_1Q_1+a_2Q_2}{Q_1+Q_2}=a$$ from which $$a_1Q_1+a_2Q_2=aQ_1+aQ_2$$ or $$(a_1-a)Q_1=(a-a_2)Q_2,$$ which means that the distances from the combined average are inversely proportional to the quantities.
This equality we can also be written as $$\frac{a_1-a}{a-a_2}=\frac{Q_2}{Q_1}.$$

In the above question, the differences were 0.5 and 0.2 (men's average to women's average differences), which give a ratio of 5:2, then the quantities (numbers of employees) are in a ratio of 2:5 (male to women).
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Re: At a certain company, average (arithmetic mean)number of  [#permalink]

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31 Jul 2017, 22:52
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We can use alligations for such kind of problems
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Re: At a certain company, average (arithmetic mean)number of  [#permalink]

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29 Jan 2017, 17:43
Let us assume the number of male employees in the company is m and number of female employees is f. Average number of years of experience for male employees is 9.8 and average number of years of experience for female employees is 9.1.
We need the ratio m:f.

Statement 1: m = 52
This is not enough to determine the ratio of m:f.

Not sufficient.

Statement 2: (9.8m + 9.1f)/(m + f) = 9.3
--> 9.8m + 9.1f = 9.3m + 9.3f.
--> 0.5m = 0.2f
--> m/f = m : f = 2:5

Sufficient

The correct answer is B.
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Re: At a certain company, average (arithmetic mean)number of  [#permalink]

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31 Aug 2018, 08:36
prashi82 wrote:
At a certain company, average (arithmetic mean) number of years of experience is 9.8 years for male employees and 9.1 years for the female employees. What is the ratio of the number of the company's male employees and the number of the company's female employees?

(1) There are 52 male employees at the company
(2) The average number of years of experience for the company's male and female employees combined is 9.3 years.

OA:B

Let Number of Male be $$M$$, and number of females be $$F$$

$$Av_{Male}$$ and $$Av_{Female}$$ be average number of years of experience of male and female respectively.

Given : $$Av_{Male} = 9.8\quad years ,Av_{Female}=9.1\quad years$$

We have to find the ratio $$\frac{M}{F}$$

Statement 1: There are 52 male employees at the company

It gives us value of $$M$$, But We do not have value of $$F$$.

So Statement 1 alone is insufficient to find the ratio $$\frac{M}{F}$$

Statement 2: The average number of years of experience for the company's male and female employees combined is 9.3 years.

$$\frac{M*Av_{Male}+F*Av_{Female}}{M+F}=9.3$$

$$9.8M+9.1F=9.3(M+F)$$

Dividing both sides by $$F$$, we get

$$9.8\frac{M}{F}+9.1=9.3(\frac{M}{F}+1)$$

We can find the value of $$\frac{M}{F}$$

Statement 2 alone is sufficient
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Re: At a certain company, average (arithmetic mean)number of   [#permalink] 31 Aug 2018, 08:36
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