goutham v wrote:
Over the past year, the number of men in Pleasantville increased by 20% while the number of women in Pleasantville decreased by 20%. If the number of men and women in Pleasantville are now equal to each other, what was the percentage change in the total population of Pleasantville over the past year?
10% decrease
4% decrease
no change
4% increase
10% increase
Let's assign some nice values to the number of men and women
AFTER the increases and decreases occurred.
Let's say that
AFTER the increases and decreases occurred, there were
24 men and
24 women. So,
AFTER the increases and decreases occurred, the TOTAL population =
48Let M = number of men BEFORE the increase
Let W = number of women BEFORE the decrease
The number of men in Pleasantville increased by 20%So, 1.2M =
24So, M =
24/1.2 = 20
There were 20 men BEFORE the increase
The number of women decreased by 20%So, 0.8F =
24So, F =
24/0.8 = 30
There were 30 women BEFORE the decrease
TOTAL population BEFORE the increases and decreases = 20 + 30 =
50What was the percentage change in the total population of Pleasantville over the past year?The population
decreased from
50 to
48ELIMINATE C, D and E
Percent change = 100(new - old)/old
= (100)(
48 -
50)/
50= -4%
= B
Cheers,
Brent