Easy problem, worded tricky.

[grimmy161]

I have a worksheet with a problem and I am sure I know the answer. Knowing my teacher though, he would try to trick us with the question so I need to see if anyone sees a trick in this so I get it wrong. This is worded EXACTLY like the problem.

A pet food manufacturer did a national survey to find out what kind of pets families have. The results are in the table.

Type of Pet Percent of Families
Dog 42%
Cat 31%
Fish 12%
Bird 4%
Other 1%

David did a survey of his 20 classmates to find out how many of their families have a dog or cat. He found that 10 out of 20 classmates have a dog. How does this result compare with the national survey.


*(There are no choices, we have to write our answer out)*

I believe that it shows an increase of 8% but I need to be sure that this isn't a trick question.

Thank you.

 

[NRS]

I think your right

 

[LivingMath]

David's results show that more of his classmates' families have dogs than the national average shown by the pet food company's survey.

Showing an increase in this context doesn't make sense, since David's results are not related to the results of the national survey.

 

[mmm4444bot]

That's a good catch, LivingMath.

How does this result compare with the national survey.

we have to write our answer out

I believe that it shows an increase of 8%.

Grimmy, you did the math correctly, but you worded your answer wrongly.

David's result does not cause the Pet Food Company's result to increase by 8%. The Pet Food Company's result for their own survey is fixed at 42%.

Just say that David's result is 8% higher than the company's survey.