2021 AMC 10B Problems/Problem 3

Revision as of 18:57, 11 February 2021 by Samrocksnature (talk | contribs) (Solution 2)

In an after-school program for juniors and seniors, there is a debate team with an equal number of students from each class on the team. Among the $28$ students in the program, $25\%$ of the juniors and $10\%$ of the seniors are on the debate team. How many juniors are in the program?

$\textbf{(A)} ~5 \qquad\textbf{(B)} ~6 \qquad\textbf{(C)} ~8 \qquad\textbf{(D)} ~11 \qquad\textbf{(E)} ~20$

Solution 1

Say there are $j$ juniors and $s$ seniors in the program. Converting percentages to fractions, $\frac{j}{4}$ and $\frac{s}{10}$ are on the debate team, and since an equal number of juniors and seniors are on the debate team, $\frac{j}{4} = \frac{s}{10}.$

Cross-multiplying and simplifying we get $5j=2s.$ Additionally, since there are $28$ students in the program, $j+s = 28.$ It is now a matter of solving the system of equations \[5j=2s\]\[j+s=28,\] and the solution is $j = 8, s = 20.$ Since we want the number of juniors, the answer is \[\boxed{(C) \text{ } 8}.\]

-PureSwag

Solution 2

We immediately see that $E$ is the only possible amount of seniors, as $10\%$ can only correspond with an answer choice ending with $0$. Thus the number of seniors is $20$ and the number of juniors is $28-20=8\rightarrow \boxed{C}$. ~samrocksnature