Nasahtahir
GMATPrepNow
mustu
In the first quarter of 2008, Harry's Hardware Store sold 300 hammers and 12,000 nails. In the second quarter of 2008, the store sold 375 hammers and 18,000 nails. By approximately what percent did the ratio of hammers sold to nails sold decrease from the first quarter to the second quarter.
A. 0.4%
B. 2.1%
C. 2.5%
D. 17%
E. 25%
1st quarter: hammers/nails = 300/12,000 =
150/60002nd quarter: hammers/nails = 375/18,000 =
125/6000ASIDE: It's useful to write both ratios with the same denominator. This allows us to IGNORE the denominator and focus solely on the numerators.
So, our ratio went from
150/6000 to
125/6000 Ignoring the denominators, we went from
150 to
125The percent change = 100(difference in values)/(original value)
= (100)(
150 -
125)/
150= (100)(25)/150)
= (100)(1)/(6)
= 100/6
≈ 16.666...
Answer: [you-tube]D[/you-tube]
Would you mind explaining how you got those 6000 ie common denominator under 2 minutes? What approach did you take?
We have 300/12,000 and 375/18,000
I recognized that 12,000 and 18,000 are both multiples of 6000
So, if we take 300/12,000 and divide numerator and denominator by 2, we get: 150/6000
Similarly, we can take 375/18,000 and divide numerator and denominator by 3, we get: 125/6000