AoPSWiki
Want to learn how to tackle those tough MATHCOUNTS and AMC counting and probability problems? Check out Art of Problem Solving's Introduction to Counting & Probability by David Patrick.
Personal tools

2004 AMC 12B Problems/Problem 11

From AoPSWiki

Problem

All the students in an algebra class took a 100-point test. Five students scored 100, each student scored at least 60, and the mean score was 76. What is the smallest possible number of students in the class?

\mathrm{(A)}\ 10\qquad\mathrm{(B)}\ 11\qquad\mathrm{(C)}\ 12\qquad\mathrm{(D)}\ 13\qquad\mathrm{(E)}\ 14

Solution

Let the number of students be n\geq 5. Then the sum of their scores is at least 5\cdot 100 + (n-5)\cdot 60. At the same time, we need to achieve the mean 76, which is equivalent to achieving the sum 76n.

Hence we get a necessary condition on n: we must have 5\cdot 100 + (n-5)\cdot 60 \leq 76n. This can be simplified to 200 \leq 16n. The smallest integer n for which this is true is n=13.

To finish our solution, we now need to find one way how 13 students could have scored on the test. We have 13\cdot 76 = 988 points to divide among them. The five 100s make 500, hence we must divide the remaining 488 points among the other 8 students. This can be done e.g. by giving 61 points to each of them.

Hence the smallest possible number of students is \boxed{13}.

See Also

2004 AMC 12B (ProblemsResources)
Preceded by
Problem 10
Followed by
Problem 12
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
Looking for a challenging algebra text? Preparing for MATHCOUNTS or the AMC exams?
Check out Art of Problem Solving's Introduction to Algebra by Richard Rusczyk.
© Copyright 2008 AoPS Incorporated. All Rights Reserved. • FoundationPrivacyContact Us