Jim and Beth are in a ticket line along with 43 other people, and Jim

Jim and Beth are in a ticket line along with 43 other people, and Jim is ahead of Beth in the line. If there are 20 people behind Jim and 30 people ahead of Beth, how many people in the line are between Beth and Jim?

First, let's get a more complete picture of the scenario by determining how many people are in the line.

Jim and Beth are in a ticket line along with 43 other people

Jim + Beth + 43 = 45 people in the line

Now, let's use the facts we have to determine how many people are between Beth and Jim.

Jim is ahead of Beth in the line

there are 20 people behind Jim

So, there must be 45 - (Jim + 20) = 24 people ahead of Jim in the line.

there are ... 30 people ahead of Beth

We already have Jim + 24 = 25 ahead of Beth.

For there to be a total of 30 ahead of Beth. there must be 30 - 25 = 5 more people between Jim and Beth.

Now, we just have to make sure we chose the correct answer because we could still fall for a trap by including Jim and Beth in our total and choosing 7.

The question asks how many people in the line are between Beth and Jim. So, the correct number is 5.

a) 5
b) 7
c) 10
d) 13
e) 15

Correct answer: (A)