Problem 10 · 1993 AJHSME
Medium
Arithmetic & Operations
read-graph
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Answer: B — March.
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Hint 1 of 2
'Drop' means the line goes down — so ignore every rising segment entirely. Only the downhill segments are even candidates.
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Hint 2 of 2
Of the downhill segments, you want the biggest vertical fall, not the steepest-looking slant. Read each segment's start height minus end height and compare those numbers.
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Approach: compare only the downhill segments by their vertical fall
- First throw out the climbs (Feb→Mar up, Apr→May up). The downhill months are March (4 down to 1.5, a fall of 2.5), May (4.5 down to 3, a fall of 1.5), and June (3 down to 1, a fall of 2).
- The largest fall is 2.5, during March.
- Why this transfers: on a line graph, the change for a month is the vertical gap between its two endpoints — read off the y-axis, don't eyeball the tilt. A long gentle line can fall less than a short steep one; trust the numbers, not the angle.
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