Average problem....Help.

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Average problem....Help.

by ramonsa » Sun May 03, 2009 4:01 pm
Hello,

A charitable association sold an average of 66 raffle tickets per member. Among the female members, the average was 70 raffle tickets. The male to female ratio of the association is 1:2. What was the average number of raffle tickets sold by the male members of the association?

Can someone explain?
Thanks
Ramon
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by truplayer256 » Sun May 03, 2009 4:22 pm
Let's say that there were x male members and 2x female members in the charitable association that sold raffle tickets.. We already know that the female members sold an average of 70 raffle tickets and that the average number of tickets sold by both the males and females was 66. From this given information, we can make the following equation:

[70(2x)+y(x)]/3x=66
where y represents the average number of tickets that the male members of the association sold.
140x+yx=198x
yx=58x
y=58

So the male members of the association sold an average of 58 tickets.

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sorry...still not clear..

by aakarim » Sun May 03, 2009 11:41 pm
Hi there..
I am stuck with this one..could you kindly explain how you got that formula drafted.


Thanks.
Dr Arsalan

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by cneal4 » Mon May 04, 2009 7:38 am
Hello Ok my way may not be the best since i'm struggling with the GMAT also but here is how I solved it.

You know the ratio is 1:2 for male to females so you can say the males are x, the females are 2x, and the total is 3x and solve the problem how the poster did above (which I think is a good way of doing it).

Or you can plug in numbers for x (use something simple) and solve. For instance if the ratio is 1:2 or x:2x you can just make x=2 and say there are 1*(2):2*(2) or 2 males to 4 females for a total of 6 people. The solve.

then you can do just solve as the user mentioned above:
= ((70*4)+(x*2))/6 = 66

= 280 + 2x = 396

= 2x = 116

= x = 58

Good luck!