HPengineer wrote:A survey asked 210 college students if they preferred either windows or mac brand computers. 60 students claimed that they preferred Mac to Windows brand computers. One third as many of the students who preferred Mac to Windows, equally preferred both brands. 90 of the students had no preference. How many of the students in the preferred Windows to Mac Brand?


I tried to solve this by overlapping set table but im not translating the statements correctly.. can someone tell me where i went wrong? below is my table followed by translation logic..

Sorry had to remove the table it would not show properly (edited by HP engineer)..


the first statement 60 students claimed to prefer Mac i put as the total in the Prefer Mac Row.

Second statement says 1/3rd as many students who prefer Mac (i assume this to be 60) equally prefer both brands.. So i put 20 in the Yes Yes box.

Lastly they say 90 students no preference so i put that in the No No box.

Prefer windows in my Table = 80 and Prefer Mac = 60 which makes a difference of twenty which is incorrect..

HPengineer wrote:sorry still not seeing where u get 40 from the table... Question ask for Prefer Windows - Prefer Macs Dont we need the total for each of those rows to calculate the difference?

For this problem i feel i should have used venn diagram... it can be done in less then 1 minute that way... However now im fixated as to why i cant solve this by Overlapping sets table