Problem Solving

guerrero wrote:Mr. Evans will states that each of his children will receive an equal share of his estate and that his grandchildren will split a portion of the estate that is equal to the share received by each of his children. If Mr. Evans has 5 children and 6 grandchildren, then approximately what percentage of Mr. Evans estate will each grandchild receive?


(A) 20%
(B) 17%
(C) 4.0%
(D) 3.3%
(E) 2.8%
.
Confused with the wordings . Brent or Mitch- could one of you help me solve it?

OAE

Yeah, the wording is a little confusing.
I believe the question is saying that the combined inheritance of the grandchildren will equal the inheritance of 1 child. For example, if each child receives $90, then the 6 grandchildren will receive a total of $90 (that is, $15 each)

So, for the moment, let's lump all of the grandchildren together, and pretend that that make up 1 extra child. So, we now have 6 children altogether.

At this point, let's say that the total inheritance is $100. So, each child (including the lump consisting of all of the grandchildren) receives $100/6 dollars (this is about $16.66 each)

Now, we'll deal with the portion the grandchildren get. The 6 grandchildren must split the $16.66.
So, each grandchild gets $16.66/6

SHORTCUT: If the total portion were $18, then each grandchild would receive $3 each. Since they must split $16.66, each grandchild will receive less than $3.
In other words, each grandchild will receive less than 3% of the inheritance.

Answer = E

Cheers,
Brent