joondez wrote:
ScottTargetTestPrep wrote:
Since the the percentage of tagged fish in the second catch approximates the percentage of tagged fish in the pond, the approximate number of fish in the pond is:
0.04(total fish) = 50
This equation assumes that there are 50 fish tagged in the total population. We do not know that. The only thing we know is that that the percentage of tagged fish in the second catch is 4%. The question says that 4% approximates the number of tagged fish in the pond. So this is the true equation we have:
Quote:
.04 (total) = tagged fish
We are missing two variables. We don't know the total fish and we don't know the tagged fish.
If there are 16 tagged fish, then choice A is correct.
If there are 26 tagged fish, then choice B is correct, and etc.
If we assume that the number of fish in the second catch (50) is the number of fish tagged, then yes the total fish would be 1250. However, that's not what the question provides. I think this question is
written poorly.So the question states that "In a certain pond, 50 fish were caught, tagged, and returned to the pond."
From this sentence, we can deduce that there are indeed a total of 50 tagged fish in the pond. The only way to have some other number of tagged fish in the pond is if there were already some number of tagged fish in the pond (in which case, the question would have told us so) or if either more fish were tagged afterward or some of the tagged fish were removed from the pond (again, we would have been told). Since we have no such information, we cannot assume that there might be some other number of tagged fish in the pond.
Perhaps you are missing the fact that 50 fish are caught TWICE: first all of them are tagged, and the second time, the tagged fish are counted.