document.write( "Question 1102691: The average age of boys in a class of 30 is 15 years. If 10 more boys join the class, the average of the whole class gets reduced by a year. What is the average age of newcomers? \n" ); document.write( "
Algebra.Com's Answer #717421 by greenestamps(13200)![]() ![]() You can put this solution on YOUR website! \n" ); document.write( "... and here is another solution using logical analysis -- similar to, yet very different from -- tutor ikleyn's second solution. \n" ); document.write( "This is a method I like to use when a problem is about averages of numbers that are all \"close together\". \n" ); document.write( "The average of the 30 boys originally in the class is 15. \n" ); document.write( "After the 10 new boys join the class, the average of all 40 boys is 14; the average age went down by 1 year. \n" ); document.write( "On average, each of the 30 boys originally in the class is 1 year older than the new average; that means all together their ages are a total of 30 more than what is needed to make the new average. \n" ); document.write( "The total of the ages of the 10 new boys has to balance out those 30 \"extra\" years from the original 30 boys; that means the average age of the 10 new boys has to be 30/10 = 3 years LESS than the new average. \n" ); document.write( "Since the new average is 14, the average age of the 10 new boys is 14-3 = 11. \n" ); document.write( "With practice, this solution method is easy to use. We can see how the method works by representing it symbolically, like this: \n" ); document.write( "(1) Let A be the new average. \n" ); document.write( "(2) The sum of the ages of the original 30 boys in the class is \n" ); document.write( "(3) The new average, with 40 boys, is A; you want the total of the ages of all 40 boys to be \n" ); document.write( "(4) From (2) and (3), we see that the total of the ages of the 10 new boys has to be \n" ); document.write( "(5) And that means the average age of the 10 new boys must be \n" ); document.write( "And since the new average is 14, the average age of the 10 new boys is 14-3 = 11. \n" ); document.write( " |