Chapter 1: General Problem Solving
Exercises
- Out of 230 racers who started the marathon, 212 completed the race, 14 gave up, and 4 were disqualified. What percentage did not complete the marathon?
- Patrick left an $8 tip on a $50 restaurant bill. What percent tip is that?
- Ireland has a 23% VAT (value-added tax, similar to a sales tax). How much will the VAT be on a purchase of a €250 item?
- Employees in 2012 paid 4.2% of their gross wages towards social security (FICA tax), while employers paid another 6.2%. How much will someone earning $45,000 a year pay towards social security out of their gross wages?
- A project on Kickstarter.com was aiming to raise $15,000 for a precision coffee press. They ended up with 714 supporters, raising 557% of their goal. How much did they raise?
- Another project on Kickstarter for an iPad stylus raised 1,253% of their goal, raising a total of $313,490 from 7,511 supporters. What was their original goal?
- The population of a town increased from 3,250 in 2008 to 4,300 in 2010. Find the absolute and relative (percent) increase.
- The number of CDs sold in 2010 was 114 million, down from 147 million the previous year[6]. Find the absolute and relative (percent) decrease.
- A company wants to decrease their energy use by 15%.
- If their electric bill is currently $2,200 a month, what will their bill be if they’re successful?
- If their next bill is $1,700 a month, were they successful? Why or why not?
- A store is hoping an advertising campaign will increase their number of customers by 30%. They currently have about 80 customers a day.
- How many customers will they have if their campaign is successful?
- If they increase to 120 customers a day, were they successful? Why or why not?
- An article reports “attendance dropped 6% this year, to 300.” What was the attendance before the drop?
- An article reports “sales have grown by 30% this year, to $200 million.” What were sales before the growth?
- The Walden University had 47,456 students in 2010, while Kaplan University had 77,966 students. Complete the following statements:
- Kaplan’s enrollment was ___% larger than Walden’s.
- Walden’s enrollment was ___% smaller than Kaplan’s.
- Walden’s enrollment was ___% of Kaplan’s.
- In the 2012 Olympics, Usain Bolt ran the 100m dash in 9.63 seconds. Jim Hines won the 1968 Olympic gold with a time of 9.95 seconds.
- Bolt’s time was ___% faster than Hines’.
- Hine’ time was ___% slower than Bolt’s.
- Hine’ time was ___% of Bolt’s.
- A store has clearance items that have been marked down by 60%. They are having a sale, advertising an additional 30% off clearance items. What percent of the original price do you end up paying?
- Which is better: having a stock that goes up 30% on Monday than drops 30% on Tuesday, or a stock that drops 30% on Monday and goes up 30% on Tuesday? In each case, what is the net percent gain or loss?
- Are these two claims equivalent, in conflict, or not comparable because they’re talking about d