sandy wrote:
17% of p is equal to 18% of q, where p and q are positive
Quantity A |
Quantity B |
p |
q |
A)The quantity in Column A is greater.
B)The quantity in Column B is greater.
C)The two quantities are equal.
D)The relationship cannot be determined from the information given.
A student asked me to elaborate on the above solution, so . . .
We got to here:
Quote:
Given: 17% of p = 18% of q
Rewrite as 0.17p = 0.18q
Multiply both sides by 100 to get: 17p = 18q
Divide both sides by 18 to get: (17/18)p = q
This tells us that q is a bit less than p
Let's back up two steps.
Once we know that (17/18)p = q, let's replace q in Quantity B with (17/18)p to get:
QUANTITY A: p
QUANTITY B: (17/18)p
Since p is POSITIVE, we can safely divide both quantities by p to get:
QUANTITY A: 1
QUANTITY B: 17/18
Answer: A
Cheers,
Brent