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Question a.
The number of those who eat breakfast, or floss regularly, or get the morning paper
(who do any (~ at least one) of these three morning activity) is
115 - 14 = 101.
Question b.
Let B is the set of those who eat breakfast (and the number of people in this set, at the same time, which is 85 - given !).
Let F is the set of those who floss regularly (and the number of people in this set, at the same time, which is 58 - given !).
Let P is the set of those who subscribe paper (and the number of people in this set, at the same time, which is 27 - given !).
Let BF is the intersection of the sets B and F (and the number of people in this intersection, at the same time, which is 52 - given !).
Let BP is the intersection of the sets B and P (and the number of people in this intersection, at the same time, which is 15 - given !).
Let BFP is the intersection of the sets B, F and P (and the number of people in this intersection, at the same time, which is 10 - given !).
The number of those who do any of these morning activities is 115 - 14 = 101.
This number, which is the number of people in the union of the sets B, F and P, can be calculated in other way, too, using the formula
101 = n(B U F U P) = B + F + P - BF - BP - FP + BFP. *()
In this equation, we know every term of the right side, except FP (which is under the question b) ).
So, we substitute all known values into equation (*), and we get
101 = 85 + 58 + 27 - 52 - 15 - FP + 10.
Now we can easily find the value of FP as
FP = 85 + 58 + 27 -52 - 15 + 10 - 101 = 12.
Answer. The number of those who use dental floss regularly and also get the morning paper is 12.
Solved.
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Regarding the formula (*), which is a key in the solution, see the lesson
- Advanced problems on counting elements in sub-sets of a given finite set
in this site.
For many other similar solved problems, see the lesson
- Challenging problems on counting elements in subsets of a given finite set