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# In an election, candidate Smith won 52 percent of the total vote in Co

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In an election, candidate Smith won 52 percent of the total vote in Co  [#permalink]

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25 Sep 2012, 05:35
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00:00

Difficulty:

35% (medium)

Question Stats:

71% (02:05) correct 29% (02:14) wrong based on 292 sessions

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In an election, candidate Smith won 52 percent of the total vote in Counties A and B. He won 61 percent of the vote in County A. If the ratio of people who voted in County A to County B is 3: 1, what percent of the vote did candidate Smith win in County B?

A. 25%
B. 27%
C. 34%
D. 43%
E. 49%
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Re: In an election, candidate Smith won 52 percent of the total vote in Co  [#permalink]

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25 Sep 2012, 05:41
1
(61%)*3x + (y%)*x = (52%)*4x
y = 25%
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Re: In an election, candidate Smith won 52 percent of the total vote in Co  [#permalink]

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25 Sep 2012, 06:00
3
1
thevenus wrote:
In an election, candidate Smith won 52% of the total vote in Counties A and B. He won 61% of the vote in County A. If the ratio of people who voted in County A to County B is 3:1, what percent of the vote did candidate Smith win in County B ?

A.25%
B.27%
C.34%
D.43%
E.49%

Hint:-Choose smart Numbers

Use the property of weighted averages:
at-a-certain-company-average-arithmetic-mean-number-of-137851.html#p1115917

$$b$$ - percent of the vote that candidate Smith win in County B
In our case: $$\frac{A}{B}=\frac{3}{1}=\frac{52-b}{61-52}$$, from which $$b = 25%.$$

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Re: In an election, candidate Smith won 52 percent of the total vote in Co  [#permalink]

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10 Jan 2014, 03:27
A : B : Total
3 : 1 : 4

Say there are a total of 100 votes. 100/4 = 25. Three parts of the 100 are in country A. So 75. Rest is in country B. Thus 25, A.

Wasn't quite sure, so this was an elevated guess, does this work? Or was it luck? :D
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Re: In an election, candidate Smith won 52 percent of the total vote in Co  [#permalink]

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28 Feb 2015, 10:31
1
2
thevenus wrote:
In an election, candidate Smith won 52% of the total vote in Counties A and B. He won 61% of the vote in County A. If the ratio of people who voted in County A to County B is 3:1, what percent of the vote did candidate Smith win in County B ?

A.25%
B.27%
C.34%
D.43%
E.49%

Hint:-Choose smart Numbers

Let total votes in County A = 3x.
Let total votes in County B = x.
Hence total votes in Count A & B together = 4x

Given that, 0.52(4x) = 0.61(3x) + n(x)
So, 2.08x = 1.83x + nx
So, n = 0.25 = 25%
Hence option A

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Re: In an election, candidate Smith won 52 percent of the total vote in Co  [#permalink]

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28 Feb 2015, 14:06
Hi All,

unceldolan wrote:
A : B : Total
3 : 1 : 4

Say there are a total of 100 votes. 100/4 = 25. Three parts of the 100 are in country A. So 75. Rest is in country B. Thus 25, A.

Wasn't quite sure, so this was an elevated guess, does this work? Or was it luck? :D

The answer selected by this user IGNORES the percents that we're meant to use, and it's essentially just 'dumb luck' that the user got the question correct.

Here's how you can TEST VALUES to get to the correct answer.

Since we have 3 times as many voters in Country A as in Country B, let's start there....

Country A = 300 voters
Country B = 100 voters

We're told that the candidate won 61% of the votes in A and 52% of the votes in TOTAL. We're asked for the percent of votes that the candidate won in Country B. From this information, we can set up the following equation...

[(.61)(300) + (X)(100)]/400 = .52

183 + 100X = 208
100X = 25
X = 25/100 = 25%

As a side note, the Official GMAT tends to design questions that won't allow for this type of 'coincidence' to be the correct answer.

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Re: In an election, candidate Smith won 52 percent of the total vote in Co  [#permalink]

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02 Jan 2016, 17:44
1
Hi All,

This question can be solved by TESTing VALUES.

We're given a series of facts to work with:
1) In an election, candidate Smith won 52 percent of the total vote in Counties A and B.
2) He won 61 percent of the vote in County A.
3) The ratio of people who voted in County A to County B is 3:1

We're asked for the PERCENT of the vote that he won in County B.

Let's TEST VALUES....

Since the ratio of the people who voted is 3:1, let's TEST...
300 people voted in County A
100 people voted in County B

He won 52% of the TOTAL vote...

He won 61% of County A....

208 - 183 = 25 votes won in County B (out of the 100 votes that were cast).

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Re: In an election, candidate Smith won 52 percent of the total vote in Co  [#permalink]

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12 Apr 2016, 09:33
1
1
Bunuel wrote:
In an election, candidate Smith won 52 percent of the total vote in Counties A and B. He won 61 percent of the vote in County A. If the ratio of people who voted in County A to County B is 3: 1, what percent of the vote did candidate Smith win in County B?

A. 25%
B. 27%
C. 34%
D. 43%
E. 49%

Another way to do these type of Q, which involve AVERAGES is WEIGHTED average method or Allegation..

$$A:B = 3:1$$...
A = 61% and AVG = 52%..
so $$B = 52 - \frac{3}{1}( 61-52)$$..
=> 52-3*9 = 52-27 = 25%
A
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Re: In an election, candidate Smith won 52 percent of the total vote in Co  [#permalink]

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20 Nov 2017, 17:30
thevenus wrote:
In an election, candidate Smith won 52% of the total vote in Counties A and B. He won 61% of the vote in County A. If the ratio of people who voted in County A to County B is 3:1, what percent of the vote did candidate Smith win in County B ?

A.25%
B.27%
C.34%
D.43%
E.49%

Hint:-Choose smart Numbers

$$\frac{A}{B}=\frac{3}{1}$$

I just used those numbers, as you would in a mixture problem.

Let A = 3
Let B = 1
Resultant percentage = .52(A + B) = .52(4)
Let x = percent of vote won in B

.61(3) + x(1) = .52(4)
1.83 + x = 2.08
x = 2.08 - 1.83
x = .25 * 100 = 25 percent

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Re: In an election, candidate Smith won 52 percent of the total vote in Co  [#permalink]

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21 Nov 2017, 02:47
1
thevenus wrote:
In an election, candidate Smith won 52% of the total vote in Counties A and B. He won 61% of the vote in County A. If the ratio of people who voted in County A to County B is 3:1, what percent of the vote did candidate Smith win in County B ?

A.25%
B.27%
C.34%
D.43%
E.49%

Hint:-Choose smart Numbers

hi

lets think this way

the voters, the weights, in country A and B are in the ratio of 3 : 1

now, set the weighted average equation

61 * 3 + 1 * b
____________ = 52
4

solving for b, we get the desired result: 25%
thanks

cheers through the kudos button if this helps you anyway
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Re: In an election, candidate Smith won 52 percent of the total vote in Co  [#permalink]

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22 Nov 2017, 11:13
thevenus wrote:
In an election, candidate Smith won 52% of the total vote in Counties A and B. He won 61% of the vote in County A. If the ratio of people who voted in County A to County B is 3:1, what percent of the vote did candidate Smith win in County B ?

A.25%
B.27%
C.34%
D.43%
E.49%

We can let the number of votes cast in County B = x and thus the number of votes cast in County A = 3x. We can create the following equation where p = percent of vote candidate Smith won in County B:

0.61(3x) + (p/100)x = .52(3x + x)

61(3x) + px = 52(4x)

183x + px = 208x

183 + p = 208

p = 25

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Re: In an election, candidate Smith won 52 percent of the total vote in Co  [#permalink]

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08 Oct 2018, 07:48
To find the percent of votes won in County B, we need to recognize that the total votes won is the sum of the votes in the 2 counties and that the number of votes won in each county is the percentage won multiplied by the number of voters. If we let x% be the percent won in County B, we can write this equation: (61% of County A voters) + (x% of County B voters) = 52% of all voters, or 0.61(County A voters) + (x/100) (County B voters) = 0.52(all voters).

We don't know the number of voters, but we do know that the ratio of County A voters to County B voters is 3:1. Thus, 3/4 of the voters are in County A and 1/4 are in County B. Now suppose that V is the total number of voters, meaning that we have V voters in County A and V voters in County B. So, our original equation becomes 0.61*(3/4) v + (x/100) (1/4) v = 0.52v.

Notice that V appears in each term, so it can be cancelled out. In other words, since we know the proportion of voters in each county, we don't need to know the actual number of voters. In fact, we can simply think of the overall percentage won, 52%, as the weighted average of the percentages won in each county, where the weights are each county's fraction of the total voters.

To solve for x, let's get rid of the fractions by multiplying both sides by 400. This gives us 0.61(300) + x = 208, 183 + x = 208, or x = 208 - 183 = 25. The percent of the voters voting for candidate Smith was 25%. Choice (A) is correct.
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Re: In an election, candidate Smith won 52 percent of the total vote in Co  [#permalink]

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02 Sep 2019, 18:05
Bunuel wrote:
In an election, candidate Smith won 52 percent of the total vote in Counties A and B. He won 61 percent of the vote in County A. If the ratio of people who voted in County A to County B is 3: 1, what percent of the vote did candidate Smith win in County B?

A. 25%
B. 27%
C. 34%
D. 43%
E. 49%

We can create the equation:

0.61A + nB = 0.52(A + B)

0.61A + nB = 0.52A + 0.52B

0.09A = 0.52B - nB

and

A/B = 3/1

A = 3B

Substituting, we have:

0.09(3B) = 0.52B - nB

0.27B = 0.52B - nB

nB = 0.25B

n = 0.25 = 25%

Alternate Solution:

Let’s assume that 400 people voted. This means that 300 were in County A and 100 were in County B.

Smith won 52% of the 400 votes, which is 400 x 0.52 = 208 total votes.
He also won 61% of the vote in County A, which is 300 x 0.61 = 183 votes.

This means that his County B vote total is 208 - 183 = 25, which is 25% of the 100 votes cast in County B.

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Re: In an election, candidate Smith won 52 percent of the total vote in Co   [#permalink] 02 Sep 2019, 18:05