George baked a total of 125 pizzas for 7 straight days, beginning on Saturday. He baked 3/5 of the pizzas the first day,

[B BTGmoderatorDC]

George baked a total of 125 pizzas for 7 straight days, beginning on Saturday. He baked 3/5 of the pizzas the first day, and 3/5 of the remaining pizzas the second day. If each successive day he baked fewer pizzas than the previous day, what is the maximum number of pizzas he could have baked on Wednesday?

A. 3
B. 4
C. 5
D. 7
E. 10


OA B

Source: Princeton Review

[Jay@ManhattanReview]

George baked a total of 125 pizzas for 7 straight days, beginning on Saturday. He baked 3/5 of the pizzas the first day, and 3/5 of the remaining pizzas the second day. If each successive day he baked fewer pizzas than the previous day, what is the maximum number of pizzas he could have baked on Wednesday?

A. 3
B. 4
C. 5
D. 7
E. 10

OA B

Source: Princeton Review

No. of pizzas baked on Saturday = 3/5 of 125 = 75;
No. of pizzas baked on Sunday = 3/5 of (125 – 75) = 30;

Total no. of pizzas baked on two days = 75 + 30 = 105;

No. of remaining pizzas = 125 – 105 = 20

=> No. of pizzas baked on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday = 20

Since we have to maximize the no. of pizzas baked on Wednesday, let's assume that George baked only 1 pizza on Friday; thus, 2 on Thursday, x on Wednesday, (x + 1) on Tuesday, and (x + 2) on Monday

=> 20 = 1 + 2 + x + (x + 1) + (x + 2)
3x = 14
x = 4.67;

However, x = 4.67 is not possible since x must be a positive integer. Looking at 3x =14, note that the nearest number that is divisible by 3 and closest to 14 is 12. Thus, x = 12/3 = 4. This way, on Thursday and Friday, together, George baked (x + 1) + (x + 2) + 2 = (2x + 5) pizzas

x = 4

Correct answer: B

Hope this helps!

-Jay
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[Scott@TargetTestPrep]

George baked a total of 125 pizzas for 7 straight days, beginning on Saturday. He baked 3/5 of the pizzas the first day, and 3/5 of the remaining pizzas the second day. If each successive day he baked fewer pizzas than the previous day, what is the maximum number of pizzas he could have baked on Wednesday?

A. 3
B. 4
C. 5
D. 7
E. 10


OA B

Solution:

We see that George baked 3/5 x 125 = 3 x 25 = 75 pizzas on Monday and 3/5 x (125 - 75) = 3/5 x 50 = 3 x 10 = 30 pizzas on Tuesday. For the first two days, he has baked 75 + 30 = 105 pizzas, which means he baked 125 - 105 = 20 pizzas for the last five days. Since we want the maximum number of pizzas baked on Wednesday and on each successive day he baked fewer pizzas than the previous day, we can let the number of pizzas baked on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday be 4, 3, 2 and 1, respectively. Therefore, the maximum number of pizzas baked on Wednesday is 20 - 10 = 10.

Answer: E