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In a graduating class of 236 students, 142 took algebra and
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16 Jan 2016, 03:24
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39% (01:08) wrong based on 141 sessions
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In a graduating class of 236 students, 142 took algebra and 121 took chemistry.What is the greatest possible number of students that could have taken both algebra and chemistry?
Re: In a graduating class of 236 students, 142 took algebra and
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28 Jul 2017, 13:06
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Carcass wrote:
In a graduating class of 236 students, 142 took algebra and 121 took chemistry. What is the greatest possible number of students that could have taken both algebra and chemistry?
Another approach is to use the Double Matrix Method. This technique can be used for most questions featuring a population in which each member has two characteristics associated with it (aka overlapping sets questions). Here, we have a population of students, and the two characteristics are: - took algebra or did NOT take algebra - took chemistry or did NOT take chemistry
Note: the TOTAL population is 236 students. If 142 students took algebra, then the remaining 94 students did NOT take algebra (236 - 142 = 94). Also, If 121 students took chemistry, then the remaining 115 students did NOT take chemistry (236 - 121 = 115).
Let's add all of this to our diagram to get...
What is the greatest possible number of students that could have taken both algebra and chemistry? So, what's the biggest number we can place in the starred box below?
Well, we can't place a number greater than 121 in that box, since the two boxes in the left-hand column (took Chem) must add to 121 So, the biggest number we can place in the starred box is 121 When we do this, we get the following diagram:
Re: In a graduating class of 236 students, 142 took algebra and
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16 Jan 2016, 03:26
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Solution
To solve this problem you want the greatest possible value of x. It is clear from the diagram that x cannot be greater than 142 nor greater than 121, otherwise or would be negative. Hence, x must be less than or 142−x 121−x equal to 121. Since there is no information to exclude the correct x=121,
Re: In a graduating class of 236 students, 142 took algebra and
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05 Feb 2016, 12:46
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Because the question asks for the greatest possible number of students. It is only possible if the set of students who took chemistry class is a subset of the set of students who took algebra as well. This basically means that all the students who took chemistry also took algebra, but all the students who took algebra didn't necessarily take chemistry.
Venn diagram question in which not all details were given?
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01 Jul 2017, 11:34
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Question: In a graduating class of 236 students, 142 took algebra and 121 took chemistry. What is the greatest possible number of students that could have taken both algebra and chemistry?
The book gives the answer as 121, with the explanation that It is clear the number of students who took both cannot exceed 121 or 142, therefore the answer is 121.
How is this possible if there are a total of 236 students? The question did not state that there were students that didn't take either class, does anyone else feel that this question is a little unfair?
Re: In a graduating class of 236 students, 142 took algebra and
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12 Apr 2020, 08:09
Hi Bret, quick question. At first I tried to solve this problem using the two items formula (group A + group B - both + neither = total). I made neither 0 to maximize the both value. This gave me 27, which is the wrong answer. I then solved this problem using the double matrix method and that gave me the right answer, 121. Two questions, what is the difference between these two methods? Are they used for different types of problems? And secondly, why didn’t the first approach, the two items formula, yield the right answer? Thank you in advance.
Re: In a graduating class of 236 students, 142 took algebra and
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13 Apr 2020, 07:42
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GREStudent2020 wrote:
Hi Bret, quick question. At first I tried to solve this problem using the two items formula (group A + group B - both + neither = total). I made neither 0 to maximize the both value. This gave me 27, which is the wrong answer. I then solved this problem using the double matrix method and that gave me the right answer, 121. Two questions, what is the difference between these two methods? Are they used for different types of problems? And secondly, why didn’t the first approach, the two items formula, yield the right answer? Thank you in advance.
The difference between the formula approach and the Double Matrix approach is that the Matrix approach always works, whereas the formula approach works in certain circumstances. Having said that, we can still use the formula approach here:
Formula: group A + group B - both + neither = total
We get: 142 + 121 - both + neither = 236
In order to maximize the value of BOTH we must first maximize the value of NEITHER. We already know that 142 students took algebra. 236 - 142 = 94 So, 94 is the maximum value of NEITHER
We get: 142 + 121 - both + 94 = 236 From here, when we solve, we get: BOTH = 121
Re: In a graduating class of 236 students, 142 took algebra and
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16 May 2022, 02:13
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noobsauce237 wrote:
Question: In a graduating class of 236 students, 142 took algebra and 121 took chemistry. What is the greatest possible number of students that could have taken both algebra and chemistry?
The book gives the answer as 121, with the explanation that It is clear the number of students who took both cannot exceed 121 or 142, therefore the answer is 121.
How is this possible if there are a total of 236 students? The question did not state that there were students that didn't take either class, does anyone else feel that this question is a little unfair?
I agree with this. If there are 121 students is the answer who took Chemistry and Algebra both, then in that case there are 21 students who exclusively took only Algebra and the total doesn't add up to 236. The question hasn't mentioned anything about students not taking either....so should we assume it?
Re: In a graduating class of 236 students, 142 took algebra and
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16 May 2022, 06:10
Expert Reply
paU1i wrote:
I agree with this. If there are 121 students is the answer who took Chemistry and Algebra both, then in that case there are 21 students who exclusively took only Algebra and the total doesn't add up to 236. The question hasn't mentioned anything about students not taking either....so should we assume it?
There's no reason to assume that there are zero students taking neither class.