Last year Brand X shoes were sold by dealers in 403 different regions

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Last year Brand X shoes were sold by dealers in 403 different regions worldwide, with an average (arithmetic mean) of 98 dealers per region. If last year these dealers sold an average of 2,488 pairs of Brand X shoes per dealer, which of the following is closest to the total number of pairs of Brand X shoes sold last year by the dealers worldwide?

A. 10^4
B. 10^5
C. 10^6
D. 10^7
E. 10^8

Answer: E
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BTGModeratorVI wrote:
Wed Jan 06, 2021 8:10 am
Last year Brand X shoes were sold by dealers in 403 different regions worldwide, with an average (arithmetic mean) of 98 dealers per region. If last year these dealers sold an average of 2,488 pairs of Brand X shoes per dealer, which of the following is closest to the total number of pairs of Brand X shoes sold last year by the dealers worldwide?

A. 10^4
B. 10^5
C. 10^6
D. 10^7
E. 10^8

Answer: E
Source: official guide
Solution:

The number of pairs of Brand X shoes sold last year was:

403 x 98 x 2,488,

which is approximately:

400 x 100 x 2,500 = 4 x 25 x 1,000,000 = 100 x 10^6 = 10^8

Answer: E

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BTGModeratorVI wrote:
Wed Jan 06, 2021 8:10 am
Last year Brand X shoes were sold by dealers in 403 different regions worldwide, with an average (arithmetic mean) of 98 dealers per region. If last year these dealers sold an average of 2,488 pairs of Brand X shoes per dealer, which of the following is closest to the total number of pairs of Brand X shoes sold last year by the dealers worldwide?

A. 10^4
B. 10^5
C. 10^6
D. 10^7
E. 10^8

Answer: E
Source: official guide
Tip: ALWAYS scan the answer choices before deciding on an approach to take. For more on this, see the video below.
Since the answer choices are very spread apart (each answer choice is 10 TIMES the previous answer choice), we can be very aggressive with our estimations

Last year Brand X shoes were sold by dealers in 403 different regions worldwide, with an average (arithmetic mean) of 98 dealers per region.
So, total number of dealers = (403)(98) ≈ (400)(100)

Dealers sold an average of 2,488 pairs of Brand X shoes per dealer
Total number of pairs of shoes sold ≈ (400)(100)(2488)
≈ (400)(100)(2500)
≈ (4)(100)(100)(25)(100)
≈ (100)(100)(100)(100)
≈ 100,000,000
≈ 10^8

Answer: E
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