If the population of a certain country increases at the rate of one person every 15 seconds, by how many persons does the population increase in 20 minutes?
A. 80
B. 100
C. 150
D. 240
E. 300
The OA is A.
Please, can any expert explain this PS question for me? I tried to solve it of the following way,
I know that every 15 seconds the population increases at a rate of one person, that's mean 4 persons per minute, then in 20 minutes will be 20 x 4 = 80, right? That's it? Thanks.
If the population of a certain country increases...
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- ErikaPrepScholar
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You nailed it! This problem is deceptively simple. We can also do this a more traditional way by cancelling units using conversion factors:
$$20\ \min\ \cdot\ \left(\frac{60\ \sec}{1\ \min}\right)\cdot\left(\frac{1\ person}{15\ \sec}\right)$$ Then cancel units $$20\ \ \cdot\ \left(\frac{60\ }{1\ }\right)\cdot\left(\frac{1\ person}{15\ }\right)$$ Cancel 15 from the numerator and denominator and solve $$20\ \ \cdot\ \left(\frac{4}{1\ }\right)\cdot\left(\frac{1\ person}{1\ }\right) = 80\ people$$
$$20\ \min\ \cdot\ \left(\frac{60\ \sec}{1\ \min}\right)\cdot\left(\frac{1\ person}{15\ \sec}\right)$$ Then cancel units $$20\ \ \cdot\ \left(\frac{60\ }{1\ }\right)\cdot\left(\frac{1\ person}{15\ }\right)$$ Cancel 15 from the numerator and denominator and solve $$20\ \ \cdot\ \left(\frac{4}{1\ }\right)\cdot\left(\frac{1\ person}{1\ }\right) = 80\ people$$
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We are given that a population increases by 1 person every 15 seconds, and we need to determine how many people it will increase by in 20 minutes, which is 20 x 60 = 1200 seconds. We can let x = the number of people being added to the population in 20 minutes and create the following proportion:swerve wrote:If the population of a certain country increases at the rate of one person every 15 seconds, by how many persons does the population increase in 20 minutes?
A. 80
B. 100
C. 150
D. 240
E. 300
1/15 = x/1200
15x = 1200
x = 80
Alternate Solution:
A rate of one person every 15 seconds equals a rate of 4 people per minute. Thus, in 20 minutes, the population is increased by 4 x 20 = 80 people.
Answer: A
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