Question

At Olympic High School, $\tfrac25$ of the freshmen and $\tfrac45$ of the sophomores took the AMC 10. Given that the number of freshmen and sophomore contestants was the same, which of the following must be true?

There are five times as many sophomores as freshmen.

There are twice as many sophomores as freshmen.

There are as many freshmen as sophomores.

There are twice as many freshmen as sophomores.

There are five times as many freshmen as sophomores.

Solution:

Let $f$ and $s$ be the numbers of freshmen and sophomores. The contestant counts are equal, so $\tfrac25 f = \tfrac45 s.$

Multiplying by $5$ gives $2f = 4s,$ so $f = 2s.$ There are twice as many freshmen as sophomores.

Thus, the correct answer is D.

2000 AMC 10 Problem 8

Solution:

Problem 8 in Other Years