Problem Solving

Hi All,

We're told that if an organization were to sell N tickets for a theater production, then the total revenue from ticket sales would be 20 percent GREATER than the total costs of the production. We're asked if the organization actually sold all BUT 5 percent of the N tickets, then the total revenue from ticket sales would be what percent greater than the total costs of the production. This question can be solved by TESTing VALUES.

IF...
N=100 tickets
Product Cost = $1000
Revenue from ALL tickets sold = $1000 + (.2)($1000) = $1000 + $200 = $1200
1 ticket costs $1200/100 = $12

If we sold all but 5% of the tickets, then those 5 tickets would account for (5)($12) and the revenue in this case would be $1200 - $60 = $1140
Thus, this revenue would be ($1140 - $1000)/($1000) = 140/1000 = 14% greater than total costs.

Final Answer: C

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

AAPL wrote:If an organization were to sell n tickets for a theater production, the total revenue from ticket sales would be 20 percent greater than the total costs of the production. If the organization actually sold all but 5 percent of the n tickets, the total revenue from ticket sales was what percent greater than the total costs of the production?

A. 4%
B. 10%
C. 14%
D. 15%
E. 18%

If we let c = the total cost of production, then 1.2c = the revenue from selling n tickets. Another way of saying this is that selling n tickets results in 1.2c. However, since the organization sold only 95% of the n tickets, the actual total revenue is 0.95(1.2c) = 1.14c.

Since the total revenue from selling 95% of the tickets is 1.14c, this means that the total revenue is 14% greater than the cost of production.

Answer: C