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Re: Of the science books in a certain supply room, 50 are on botany, 65 ar [#permalink]
Thanks Bunel. Very helpful response yet again!

Is this the only way to solve this?
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Re: Of the science books in a certain supply room, 50 are on botany, 65 ar [#permalink]
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shreya717 wrote:
Thanks Bunel. Very helpful response yet again!

Is this the only way to solve this?


Pretty much yes. For such kind of questions you should test worst case scenario to get the answer. Check the links in my previous post for similar questions.
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Re: Of the science books in a certain supply room, 50 are on botany, 65 ar [#permalink]
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boomtangboy wrote:
Of the science books in a certain supply room, 50 are on botany, 65 are on zoology, 90 are on physics. 50 are on geology, and 110 are on chemistry. If science books are removed randomly from the supply room, how many must be removed to ensure that 80 of the books removed are on the same science?

A. 81
B. 159
C. 166
D. 285
E. 324


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Re: Of the science books in a certain supply room, 50 are on botany, 65 ar [#permalink]
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I had a different approach.

You know that only books you can remove to get 80 of the same science is Physics (90) or Chemistry (110). Probability of drawing out a Chemistry is higher with every draw 110/365 vs 80/365. Logically you'll need to take out fewer books to 80 of the Chemistry. So you look at Physics books instead. Because the question says 'ensure'.

P(Physics) = 90/365 simplify to 90/360 or 1/4. You know that for every 4 books you take out 1 is likely to be a physics book. Then to get 80 physics books you need to take out 80 x 4 = 320. Answer is (E)
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Of the science books in a certain supply room, 50 are on botany, 65 ar [#permalink]
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Had an alternative approach

To ensure you get at least 80 books, you only look at Physics or Chemistry. 90 or 110. I calculated what percentage 80 books were of each group and took the highest percentage (i.e. 80/90 for Physics) and multiplied it by the total number of books (365). This makes sure you get 80 of one science as it makes sure you get 80 of the science that has the fewer books (i.e. harder probability). This gives you exactly 324.
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Re: Of the science books in a certain supply room, 50 are on botany, 65 ar [#permalink]
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boomtangboy wrote:
Of the science books in a certain supply room, 50 are on botany, 65 are on zoology, 90 are on physics, 50 are on geology, and 110 are on chemistry. If science books are removed randomly from the supply room, how many must be removed to ensure that 80 of the books removed are on the same science?

A. 81
B. 159
C. 166
D. 285
E. 324


Let’s assume the worst case scenario: all 50 botany, all 50 geology, and all 65 zoology books are removed, and 79 physics and 79 chemistry books are removed. We see that we have 50 x 2 + 65 + 79 x 2 = 323 books removed, but we still don’t have 80 books of one science removed. However, if we remove one more book, which must be either a physics book or a chemistry book, we will have 80 books of one science removed. Thus we need need to remove 323 + 1 = 324 books.

Answer: E
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Re: Of the science books in a certain supply room, 50 are on botany, 65 ar [#permalink]
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boomtangboy wrote:
Of the science books in a certain supply room, 50 are on botany, 65 are on zoology, 90 are on physics, 50 are on geology, and 110 are on chemistry. If science books are removed randomly from the supply room, how many must be removed to ensure that 80 of the books removed are on the same science?

A. 81
B. 159
C. 166
D. 285
E. 324


Let's see what happens when the following books are removed:
50 on botany
65 on zoology
79 on physics
50 on geology
79 on chemistry
TOTAL = 323

At this point, we do NOT have 80 of any one science topic.
However, if we remove one of the remaining books (which are either physics books or chemistry books), we will certainly have 80 books on one science topic.
In other words, if we remove 324 books, we can be certain of having 80 books on one science topic

Answer: E

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Re: Of the science books in a certain supply room, 50 are on botany, 65 ar [#permalink]
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Re: Of the science books in a certain supply room, 50 are on botany, 65 ar [#permalink]
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