2005 AMC 12B Problems/Problem 9

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The following problem is from both the 2005 AMC 12B #9 and 2005 AMC 10B #19, so both problems redirect to this page.

Problem

On a certain math exam, $10\%$ of the students got $70$ points, $25\%$ got $80$ points, $20\%$ got $85$ points, $15\%$ got $90$ points, and the rest got $95$ points. What is the difference between the mean and the median score on this exam?

$\mathrm{(A)}\ 0 \qquad \mathrm{(B)}\ 1 \qquad \mathrm{(C)}\ 2 \qquad \mathrm{(D)}\ 4 \qquad \mathrm{(E)}\ 5$

Solution

To begin, we see that the remaining $30\%$ of the students got $95$ points. The smallest case is that there are $20$ students, because $\gcd\ (10,25,20,15,30)=5$, and $5\%^{-1}=20$. We see that $2$ students got $70$ points, $5$ students got $80$ points, $4$ students got $85$ points, $3$ students got $90$ points, and $6$ students got $95$ points. The median is $85$, since the $10^{\text{th}}$ and $11^{\text{th}}$ terms in an ordered sequence are both $85$. The mean is $\dfrac{70\,(2)+80\,(5)+85\,(4)+90\,(3)+95\,(6)}{20}=\dfrac{1720}{20}=86$. The difference between the mean and median, therefore, is $\boxed{\mathrm{(B)}\ 1}$.

See also

2005 AMC 10B (ProblemsAnswer KeyResources)
Preceded by
Problem 18
Followed by
Problem 20
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
2005 AMC 12B (ProblemsAnswer KeyResources)
Preceded by
Problem 8
Followed by
Problem 10
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