2020 AMC 8 Problem 13

Attempt Problem 13 of the 2020 AMC 8 below, then check your answer against the video solution and professionally curated solution from LIVE by Po-Shen Loh. You can also try the full timed exam, view all 2020 AMC 8 solutions, or check the answer key.

All problems are used with official legal permission of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA).

13.

Jamal has a drawer containing 66 green socks, 1818 purple socks, and 1212 orange socks. After adding more purple socks, Jamal noticed that there is now a 60%60\% chance that a sock randomly selected from the drawer is purple. How many purple socks did Jamal add?
66
99
1212
1818
2424
Answer: B
Concepts:basic probabilitylinear equation
Small hint:
The non-purple socks stay at 1818
Big hint:
If purple is 60%60\%, non-purple is 40%40\%
Video solution:
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Written solution:
Suppose Jamal adds ss purple socks. Then, there will be s+18s+18 purple socks.
Also, since there are 3636 total socks to begin with, we have s+36s+36 socks after adding the socks.
Since we have a 60%60\% chance of choosing a purple sock afterwards, we know s+18s+36=0.6.\dfrac{s+18}{s+36}=0.6.
Solving for ss yields: s+18=0.6s+21.60.4s=3.6s=9.\begin{align*}s+18 &= 0.6s+21.6 \\ 0.4s &= 3.6\\ s &= 9.\end{align*}
Therefore, 99 socks are added.
Thus, the correct answer is B.
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