A certain ball team has an equal number of right- and left-h

Question

A certain ball team has an equal number of right- and left-handed players. On a certain day, two-thirds of the players were absent from practice. Of the players at practice that day, one-third were left handed. What is the ratio of the number of right-handed players who were not at practice that day to the number of lefthanded players who were not at practice?

A. 1/3
B. 2/3
C. 5/7
D. 7/5
E. 3/2

A. 1/3 
B. 2/3 
C. 5/7 
D. 7/5 
E. 3/2

Bunuel · Accepted Answer

Say the total number of players is 18, 9 right-handed and 9 left-handed.

On a certain day, two-thirds of the players were absent from practice --> 12 absent and 6 present.

Of the players at practice that day, one-third were left-handed --> 6*1/3=2 were left-handed and 4 right-handed.

The number of right-handed players who were not at practice that day is 9-4=5.

The number of left-handed players who were not at practice that days is 9-2=7.

The ratio = 5/7.

Answer: C.

sivasanjeev · Answer

2/3 players were absent ==> 1/3 players were present.

Of those playing, 1/3rd were left-handed == > 1/3 of 1/3 left-handed players were playing == 1/9
Left-handed players who weren't playing = 1/2 - 1/9 (why 1/2 ? because, team has an equal number of right- and left-handed players)
= 5/18

Of those playing, 2/3rd were right handed ==> 2/3 of 1/3 right-handed players were playing == 2/9
Right-handed players who weren't playing = 1/2 - 2/9
= 7/18

Required = (5/18) / (7/18)
=5/7

AayushGMAT · Answer

Firstly choose and value keeping fractions in mind.

Let us take value of total no. players be  180

As there are equal no. of left hand players and no. of right hand players , 
 therefore left players = right players =  90

-----> no. of players absent on the practice day =  \frac{2}{3} * 180 = 120

no. of players present on the practice day =  180-120 = 60 
 
----> no. of left hand players present on the practice day =  \frac{1}{3} * 60 = 20

therfore no. of left hand players absent on the practice day =  90-20 = 70

-----> no. of right hand players present on the practice day =  \frac{2}{3} * 60 = 40

therefore, no. of right hand players absent on the practice day =  90-40 = 50

no. of right hand players absent on the practice day   =  \frac{50}{70} = \frac{5}{7} 
  no. of left hand players absent on the practice day

therfore answer is C

PareshGmat · Answer

2d.png 1. Say total students = 90 2. Total Left Handed would be = 45 3. Total Right Handed would be = 45 4. Total absent are \frac{2}{3} rd = 60 5. Total present would be = 30 6. \frac{1}{3} rd of present are Left Handed = \frac{30}{3} = 10 7. Absent Left Handed are = 45-10 = 35 8. Present Right Handed would be = 30-10 = 20 9. Absent right handed would be = 45-20 = 25 Required ratio = \frac{25}{35} = \frac{5}{7} Answer = C

JeffTargetTestPrep · Answer

We can let the number of right- and left-handed players be 9 (we are using the number 9 because it’s a multiple of 3). Thus, there are a total of 18 players on the team.

Since we are given that on certain day, ⅔ of the players were absent, 12 players were absent and 6 players were present. Of the 6 players who were present, ⅓ were left-handed, so 2 players were left-handed and 4 players were right-handed.

Since we’ve assumed there were 9 right-handed players and 9 left-handed players on the team, 5 right-handed players were absent and 7 left-handed players were absent. So, the ratio of absent right-handed players to absent left-handed players is 5 to 7.

Answer: C

avocado310 · Answer

I seem to have an issue picking the right SMART numbers.

For example, I had started out with the total number of players as 60 then 12. How do you preemptively pick an easy number given the 1/3 and 2/3 calculations?

Thanks!

hgfor · Answer

Hi

It helps to consider the fractions as the question runs along. While reading I jotted down: 1/2 , 2/3 , and finally 1/3. The product being 2/18. Therefore, picking 18 is likely to be a good start.

Hope that helps.

Cheers

avocado310 · Answer

Wow. So simple, yet totally didn't cross my mind to just multiply the "given" fractions. Thank you!

SaileshKumar · Answer

bumpbot · Answer

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