<p>(I'm terrible at probability...)</p>
<p>At a party, there was one pizza for every 3 people, one salad for every 6 people, and one cake for every 8 people. If the total number of pizzas, salads, and cakes was n, then, in terms of n, how many people were at the party?</p>
<p>a) 8/5n
b) 3/2n
c) 7/4n
d) 2n
e) 9/4n</p>
<p>I don't have the answers on me unfortunately...</p>
<p>I think I FINALLY got the answer – is it A? I think I mistaken n for the fraction of the total… I’m still looking for other explanations…</p>
<p>Convert to fractions:
for example:
There’s 8/24 pizzas/ person, 4/24 salads/person, and 3/24 cakes/person
These add up to 15/24 or 5/8 total pizzas, salads and cakes/ person.
Thus, for every 5 pizzas/salads/cakes, there are 8 people at the party. The ratio of people to pizza/salad/cake is 8/5.</p>
<p>The answer should be (A)
Hope my explanation is sufficient</p>
<p>A helpful strategy in these problems is to simply choose a number and start from there.</p>
<p>marz has the right approach, but his explanation isn’t quite clear.</p>
<p>Pick any number for the number of people at the party. However, the food ratios include the numbers 3, 6, and 8 so your best bet is the LCM of those three numbers - 24. We have 24 people at the party so that means</p>
<p>8 pizzas
4 salads
3 cakes</p>
<p>8 + 4 + 3 = 15. n = 15, because 15 is the sum of the food items. </p>
<p>Now plug 15 in for n in the answer choices and see what expression gives 24, the number of people you picked initially.</p>
<p>a) 8/5n = 8/5<em>15
b) 3/2n = 3/2</em>15
c) 7/4n = 7/4<em>15
d) 2n = 2</em>15
e) 9/4n = 9/4*15</p>
<p>b, c, and e are out and you don’t have to do any calculations (15 is not divisible by 2 or 4). d is wrong because it yields 30, leaving a as the correct answer.</p>
<p>PS this has nothing to do with probability</p>
<p>suppose there are x people, than x/3+x/6+x/8=n, then you’ll get x</p>