Problem 2 · 2007 AMC 8
Easy
Arithmetic & Operations
ratio-from-graph
650 students were surveyed about their pasta preferences. The choices were lasagna, manicotti, ravioli and spaghetti. The results of the survey are displayed in the bar graph. What is the ratio of the number of students who preferred spaghetti to the number of students who preferred manicotti?
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Answer: E — 5/2.
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Hint 1 of 2
The 650 total and the other two foods are decoys — a ratio only needs the two bars it asks about. Read the height of just the spaghetti and manicotti bars.
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Hint 2 of 2
A ratio question is a 'pull out only what's asked' question: ignore every number the comparison doesn't mention.
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Approach: read the two relevant bars, then reduce
- Read only the two bars named: spaghetti = 250, manicotti = 100. (The 650 total and the other foods are scenery.)
- Ratio = 250 : 100. Cancel the common 50: that's 5 : 2, i.e. 5/2.
- Sanity check: spaghetti is clearly more than double manicotti, and 5/2 = 2.5, so it points the right way.
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