Maths Olympiad Prep

Track / Stage 5 / 26 of 400 #626 of 1964

Problem 626

AIME late
Combinatorics Difficulty 5.1 Find the answer

14. Ayeesha had 12 guests aged 6,7,8,96,7,8,9 and 10 at her birthday party. Four of the guests were 6 years old. The most common age was 8 years old. What was the mean age of the guests?
A 6
В 6.5
C 7
D 7.5
E 8

Multiple choice: answer with the letter of the option you want.

Official solution

Solution
D

Since there were four children aged 6 and the most common age was 8 , there were at least five children aged 8 at the party. Hence, as there were 12 children in total, there were at most three other children at the party. We are told that there were children aged 7, 9 and 10 at the event so we can deduce that there were exactly five children aged 8 , one child aged 7 , one child aged 9 and one child aged 10 at Ayeesha's party as well as the four children aged 6. Therefore the total age of the children was 4×6+7+5×8+9+10=904 \times 6+7+5 \times 8+9+10=90. Hence the mean age of the children was 90÷12=7.590 \div 12=7.5.

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