Question

In a certain class, 1/2 of the students are ballers and 1/3 of the ballers are seniors. If 1/2 of the senior ballers have failed the last test, which of the following could be the total number of students in the class?
A. 3
B. 9
C. 12
D. 18
E. 21

the questions seems weird.. not sure if it's me, though

Answer 1

so first, let's look at how many ballers are in the class. Let us say that there are x ballers in the class. Then \(\frac{1}{2} x\) is the number of students that are ballers in general. Do you follow?

Answer 2

mhm. then 1/6 will be seniors, correct? is that what you're getting at?

Answer 3

yep
then what is the maximum fraction of the class that was senior that could have failed?

Answer 4

then 1/12 will be the ones that failed and since you can't have 1/12th of any other number other than 12, answer is C. YOU, MY FRIEND, ARE A GENIUS! :D

Answer 5

wait wait no

Answer 6

*suspense*

Answer 7

you have to do the other operators and work backwards still

Answer 8

papoi? o.0

Answer 9

Ok I don't think any of them are right because you cannot take half and then get an appropriate answer for further division

Answer 10

but 1/12th of 12 is one. so 1 senior baller failed. 6 of them are ballers. 2 of them are seniors D:

Answer 11

ignore that last
12 half is 6 1/3 of 6 is 2 1/2 is 1

Answer 12

just read wrong I oops

Answer 13

yea you're right lol

Answer 14

thank you very much! :) I'm trying to help my brother with SAT stuff and this question was getting on my nerves XD

Answer 15

lol yea, it's fun. The original method worked, but I ran it forwards instead of backwards so I took \(\frac{1}{12}\) instead of \(\frac{1}{2}\) haha