Carcass wrote:
Last month 15 homes were sold in Town X. The average (arithmetic mean) sale price of the homes was $150,000 and the median sale price was $130,000. Which of the following statements must be true?
I. At least one of the homes was sold for more than $165,000.
II. At least one of the homes was sold for more than $130,0000 and less than $150,000
III. At least one of the homes was sold for less than $130,000.
A. I only
B. II only
C. III only
D. I and II
E. I and III
The key word in this question is
MUSTSo, if it's possible to create a scenario in which the statement is
not true, we can
eliminate it.
So, let's create a possible scenario and see which answer choices we can eliminate.
Aside: To make things simpler, let's
divide all of the prices by 1000.
First, we'll use a nice rule that says:
sum of all values = (mean)(number of values)So, the sum of all 15 prices = ($150)(15) =
$2250.
If the median is $130, then the middlemost value is
$130So, one possible scenario is:
130, 130, 130, 130, 130, 130, 130,
130, 130, 130, 130, 130, 130, 130, 430
Aside: To find the last value (430), I took the sum of all 15 numbers (
2250) and subtracted (14)(130)
Notice that this scenario tells us that statements II and III need not be true.
Since answer choices B, C, D and E all include either II or III, we can eliminate them.
This leaves us with A, which must be the correct answer.
Cheers,
Brent