Problem Solving

Hi

Whats the best way to solve this problem -

At a loading dock, each worker on the night crew loaded 3/4 as many boxes as each worker on the day crew. If the night crew had 3/5 as many workers as the day crew, what fraction of all the boxes loaded by the two crews did the day crew load?

Thanks in advance

plugging in the best approach .. assume the number of boxes loaded by day workers as 16. and the of day workers as 10.

do let me know if u still have problems...

PS: It always good if u can post the answer choices for the queries.

Thanks the answer choices are

A)1/2

B)2/5

C)3/5

D)4/5

E)5/8

The answer is E) I am still not sure how to get this with plugging please can you elaborate?

3/5 as many workers as the day crew, what fraction of all the boxes loaded by the two crews did the day crew load

are you sure it is 3/5 and not 4/5 .... if its 3/5 then none of the answer choices match...

please chk and let us know... if its 4/5 ..

then the answer is E. 5/8

Yeah sorry the night crew had 4/5 as many workers as the day crew. Can you please show me how to work this out with sustituting?

Thanks again

Set up a table if it helps you.


Workers Box/worker Total
Day 5 4 20

Night 4 3 12

Total 32

Day/Total = 20/32 = 5/8 = E

As i said....
plugging in the best approach .. assume the number of boxes loaded by day workers as 16. and the of day workers as 10.

hence no of boxes by night workers 3/4*16 = 12

total number of night workers = 4/5 *10 = 8

total number of boxes produces = 16*10+ 8*12= 256

ratio = 160/256 = 5/8

hence E

hope it helps..

total day workers:x
total boxes each day worker produced:y
--> day workers produced totally: xy
total night workers:4/5x
total boxes each night worker produced:3/4y
--> night workers produced totally: 3/4y*4/5x=3/5xy
-->day and night workers produced totally: 3/5xy+xy=8/5xy

the fraction day workers produced: xy/(8/5)*xy=5/8

I feel like this problem is the type that you feel you need to get right if you want a chance to score highly on the gmat.

I chose similar numbers in some of the graphs here but am getting an incorrect answer, does anyone see my mistake?

Day Night
Boxes 20 15 (3/4 of 20)

Workers 25 15 (3/5 of 25)

I know these numbers are rather large but in the heat of the moment I just picked numbers that came to me.

15*15 = 225
25*20 = 500

however 225/(500+225) does not equal 5/8....

Hi evan .. i think ur missing here

If u see all the posts .. its mentioned that the ratio is incorrectly given as 3/5 ..its actually 4/5 and subsequently corrected as well..

hope that helps..