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2010 AMC 10B Problem 12

Problem 12 of 25IntermediateAlgebra

At the beginning of the school year, 50%50\% of all students in Mr. Wells’ math class answered “Yes” to the question “Do you love math”, and 50%50\% answered “No.” At the end of the school year, 70%70\% answered “Yes” and 30%30\% answered “No.” Altogether, x%x\% of the students gave a different answer at the beginning and end of the school year. What is the difference between the maximum and the minimum possible values of x?x?

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Solution

To minimize x,x, we want to have as many kids as possible maintain their answer. We then need at least 7050=2070 - 50 = 20 percent of the students to change their answer. To maximize x,x, we can have everybody that answered no change their answer, but some who answered yes must stay yes. We need 7050=2070 - 50 = 20 percent of the people who said yes to stay yes, which means only 5020=3050 - 20 = 30 percent can switch. This makes the maximum percent of students that can switch 50+30=8050 + 30 = 80 percent. The difference is then 8020=60.80 - 20 = 60. Thus, D is the correct answer.

More practice

Concepts: percentage · bounding to limit cases

Problem text and solution from the LIVE past-contest archive. See also the AoPS wiki page for community solutions.