Problem Solving

On a recent trip, Cindy, drove her car 290 miles, rounded to the nearest 10 miles, and used 12 gallons of gas, rounded to the nearest gallon. The actual number of miles per gallon the Cindy's car got on this trip must have been between?

Answer is D) 284/12.5 and 295/11.4

_I must be going crazy but, isn't 284 rounded to 280 and 295 rounded to 300.
Also, gasoline should be between 11.5 and 12.4, right?

Your rounding is correct, but you need to look a little deeper at the question. It's asking which values the actual mileage would be between. Technically the mileage could be between 1 to 300mpg

To simplify it, assume you were asked to pick a number between 20 and 30 and then asked to pick the range that this number falls in and you are given the follwing options:

1-5
10-19
34-50
30-100
19-31.

Only one option will contain the number you selected, and while you couldn't have selected 19 or 31 specifically, the number you did pick has to be between 19-31. If you look at the other options to choose from in the actual question you will see that they work out to ranges that either start too high or end to low to cover the appropriate range, but the actual mileage has to fall somewhere between 284/12.5 and 295/11.4

Specialk could you please write the answer choices....some times is better to have them.

Thanks!

cris wrote:Specialk could you please write the answer choices....some times is better to have them.

Thanks!

I'm not Specialk, nor do I play them on television, but the answer choices are:

A) 290/12.5 and 290/11.4
B) 295/12 and 284/11.4
C) 284/12 and 295/12
D) 284/12.5 and 295/11.4
E) 295/12.5 and 284/11.4

This is what Tud is trying to explain I suppose.

"...actual number of miles per gallon the Cindy's car got on this trip must have been between"

The key word is "between". The question is - the range you got when solving the problem must be between which of the following???

Calista.

I'm nothing if not long winded.

"I'm not Specialk, nor do I play them on television, but the answer choices"

-That's funny.

Thanks for clarifying about the word between. Have been driving myself nuts trying to figure out if there was something wrong with my rounding.

This question had me confused as hell as well. However given that the answer choices are

A) 290/12.5 and 290/11.4
B) 295/12 and 284/11.4
C) 284/12 and 295/12
D) 284/12.5 and 295/11.4
E) 295/12.5 and 284/11.4

How would we go about simplifying these fractions without a calculator? Thanks.