Betty sold 3/5 of her family’s garage sale items. Ernest sold 1/2 of

Question

Betty sold  \frac{3}{5}  of her family’s garage sale items. Ernest sold  \frac{1}{2}  of the remaining items. What fraction of the family’s garage sale items did Ernest sell?

A. 1/10 
B. 1/7
C. 1/6
D. 1/5
E. 1/3

BrentGMATPrepNow · Answer

To solve this question we can use either algebra, or we can  assign a "nice value"  to the number of garage sale items we started with.
Let's choose a number that works well with the given values: 3/5 and 1/2

Let's say there were   30   items for sale ORIGINALLY

Betty sold 3/5 of her family’s garage sale items.  
3/5 of   30   = (3/5)(  30  ) = 18
So, Betty sold  18  items

30   - 18 =   22  
So there are now   12   items REMAINING

Ernest sold 1/2 of the remaining items.  
1/2 of   12   = (1/2)(  12  ) = 6
So, Ernest sold  6  items

What fraction of the family’s garage sale items did Ernest sell?  
 6 /  30   =  1/5

Answer: D

Cheers, 
Brent

TheNightKing · Answer

Let's say the total items are 5. B sold 3 out of those 5 and hence 2 are remaining.

E sold  \frac{1}{2}  of 2 and hence only 1 is remaining.

E sold 1 out of 5 items in total. Hence 1/5.

Answer D

NitishJain · Answer

IMO  D

Let total items = P
Betty sold  \frac{3}{5}  * P
Left =  \frac{2P}{5} 
 Ernest sold 1212 of the remaining items
=  \frac{1}{2}  *  \frac{2P}{5}  =  \frac{P}{5}

=> Ernest sold  \frac{1}{5}  of items

Abhishek009 · Answer

Let there be 10 items in the garage

So, Betty sold 6 itms and 4 items are left

And, Ernest sold 2 items and 2 items are left

Thus,fraction of items Earnest sold is 2/10 = 1/5 , Answer must be (D)

Babineaux · Answer

Let the whole garage is 1 portion.

Betty sold  \frac{3}{5}  of it,

Remaining portion of garage = 1 -  \frac{3}{5}  =  \frac{2}{5} ;

Ernest sold  \frac{1}{2}  portion of  \frac{2}{5}  which equals to  \frac{2}{5}  x  \frac{1}{2}  =  \frac{1}{5}

Thus,  \frac{1}{5}  of the family’s garage items was sold by Ernest.

IMO ans is D.

ScottTargetTestPrep · Answer

Solution:
 
Since the remaining items after those that Betty sold constitute 1 - 3/5 = 2/5 of all garage sale items, Ernest sold 1/2 x 2/5 = 1/5 of all garage sale items.

Answer: D

Betty sold 3/5 of her family’s garage sale items. Ernest sold 1/2 of

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Betty sold 3/5 of her family’s garage sale items. Ernest sold 1/2 of

Prep Toolkit

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