2014 AMC 10A Problems/Problem 5

The following problem is from both the 2014 AMC 12A #5 and 2014 AMC 10A #5, so both problems redirect to this page.

Problem

On an algebra quiz, $10\%$ of the students scored $70$ points, $35\%$ scored $80$ points, $30\%$ scored $90$ points, and the rest scored $100$ points. What is the difference between the mean and median score of the students' scores on this quiz?

$\textbf{(A)}\ 1\qquad\textbf{(B)}\ 2\qquad\textbf{(C)}\ 3\qquad\textbf{(D)}\ 4\qquad\textbf{(E)}\ 5$

Solution 1

Without loss of generality, let there be $20$ students (the least whole number possible) who took the test. We have $2$ students score $70$ points, $7$ students score $80$ points, $6$ students score $90$ points and $5$ students score $100$ points. Therefore, the mean is $87$ and the median is $90$ .

Thus, the solution is $90-87=3\implies\boxed{\textbf{(C)} \ 3}$

Solution 2

The percentage who scored $100$ points is $100\%-(10\%+35\%+30\%)=100\%-75\%=25\%$ . Now, we need to find the median, which is the score that splits the upper and lower $50\%$ .The lower $10\%+35\%=45\%$ scored $70$ or $80$ points, so the median is $90$ (since the upper $25\%$ is $100$ points and the lower $45\%$ is $70$ or $80$ ).The mean is $10\%\cdot70+35\%\cdot80+30\%\cdot90+25\%\cdot100=7+28+27+25=87$ . So, our solution is $90-87=3\Rightarrow\boxed{3 \ \textbf{(C)} }$ ~sosiaops

Solution 3

The $\le 80$ -point scores make up $10\%+35\% = 45\% < 50\%$ of the scores, but the $\le 90$ -point scores make up $45\%+30\% = 75\% > 50\%$ of the scores, so the median is $90$ .

$10\%$ of scores were $70-90 = -20$ more than the median, $35\%$ were $-10$ more, $100\%-75\% = 25\%$ were $10$ more, and the rest were equal. This means that the mean score is $10\%\cdot(-20)+35\%\cdot(-10)+25\%\cdot10 = -2 + (-3.5) + 2.5 = -3$ more than the median, so their difference is $\left|-3\right| = \boxed{\textbf{(C)}\ 3}$ . ~emerald_block

Video Solution

https://youtu.be/Oe-QLPIuTeY

~savannahsolver

2014 AMC 10A (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 4	Followed by Problem 6
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
All AMC 10 Problems and Solutions

2014 AMC 12A (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 4	Followed by Problem 6
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
All AMC 12 Problems and Solutions

The problems on this page are copyrighted by the Mathematical Association of America's American Mathematics Competitions.

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