AMC 10 · 2017 · #10

Grade 7 rate-ratio
percentageconditional-probabilityratio-proportion easier-related-problemsystematic-enumeration ↑ Prerequisites: percentage
📏 Medium solution 💡 2 insights
Problem
At a school, 60 percent of students like dancing and 40 percent dislike it. Of the likers, 80 percent say they like it and 20 percent say they dislike it. Of the dislikers, 90 percent say they dislike it and 10 percent say they like it. Among all the students who say they dislike dancing, find the fraction who actually like it.

Pick an answer.

(A)
$10\%$
(B)
$12\%$
(C)
$20\%$
(D)
$25\%$
(E)
$\frac{100}{3}\%$
How to solve
Strategy Make a Systematic List

Tool #2 (Make a Systematic List): every student falls into one of four boxes — like/say-like, like/say-dislike, dislike/say-dislike, dislike/say-like — so I list all four and count each. Tool #9 (Solve an Easier Related Problem): instead of juggling percentages, I pretend there are exactly 100 students so each percent becomes a plain count. Tool #16 (Change Focus): the question only cares about students who SAY they dislike dancing, so I narrow my attention to just that group at the end.

1STEP 1

Use 100 students

Taking 100 students turns percentages into people.

likers=60, dislikers=40
2STEP 2

Split the likers

The likers split in two by what they say.

0.80 × 60=48 (say like), 0.20 × 60=12 (say dislike)
3STEP 3

Split the dislikers

The dislikers split the same way.

0.90 × 40=36 (say dislike), 0.10 × 40=4 (say like)
4STEP 4

Gather the 'say dislike' group

Only the say-dislike students are gathered, from both groups.

12+36=48 say they dislike dancing
5STEP 5

Take the fraction

Inside that group the fraction is 25 percent.

12/48=1/4=25% → (D)
Answer
25%
Check that the four boxes cover all 100 students: 48+12+36+4=100, good. The 'say dislike' group is 12+36=48, and 12 of them really like dancing, giving 12/48=25%. That is more than 1/10 but well below half, which fits the intuition that most people who say they dislike it truly do — so 25% is reasonable.
💡Key takeaway

Pretend there are 100 students, sort them into four boxes by what they feel and what they say, then take 'actually like it' over 'everyone who says dislike' — that is 12/48=25%, choice (D).

  • Use 100 students
  • Split the likers
  • Split the dislikers
  • Gather the 'say dislike' group
  • Take the fraction