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1987 AJHSME Problems/Problem 18

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Problem

Half the people in a room left. One third of those remaining started to dance. There were then 12 people who were not dancing. The original number of people in the room was

\text{(A)}\ 24 \qquad \text{(B)}\ 30 \qquad \text{(C)}\ 36 \qquad \text{(D)}\ 42 \qquad \text{(E)}\ 72

Solution

Let the original number of people in the room be x. Half of them left, so \frac{x}{2} of them are left in the room.

After that, one third of this group is dancing, so \frac{x}{2}-\frac{1}{3}\left( \frac{x}{2}\right) =\frac{x}{3} people are not dancing.

This is given to be 12, so \frac{x}{3}=12\Rightarrow x=36

\boxed{\text{C}}

See Also

1987 AJHSME (ProblemsResources)
Preceded by
Problem 17
Followed by
Problem 19
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