2017 AMC 10 B

Complete problem set with solutions and individual problem pages

Problem 12 Easy

Elmer's new car gives 50\% better fuel efficiency. However, the new car uses diesel fuel, which is 20\% more expensive per liter than the gasoline the old car used. By what percent will Elmer save money if he uses his new car instead of his old car for a long trip? (2017 AMC 10B Problem, Question#12)

  • A.

    20\%

  • B.

    26\frac 23\%

  • C.

    27\frac 79\%

  • D.

    33\frac 13\%

  • E.

    66\frac 23\%

Answer:A

Suppose that his old car runs at x km per liter. Then his new car runs at \frac 32x km per liter, or x km per \frac 23 of a liter. Let the cost of the old car's fuel be c, so the trip in the old car takes xc dollars, while the trip in the new car takes \dfrac{2}{3}\cdot\dfrac{6}{5}xc=\dfrac{4}{5}xc. He saves \dfrac{\dfrac{1}{5}xc}{xc}=\rm (A)20\%.

Because they do not give you a given amount of distance, we'll just make that distance 3x miles.Then, we find that the new car will use 2*1.2=2.4x. The old car will use 3x. Thus the answer is \dfrac{3-2.4}{3}=\dfrac{0.6}{3}=\dfrac{20}{100}=\rm (A)20\%.

You can find that the ratio of fuel used by the old car and the new car in a same amount of distance is 3:2, and the ratio between the fuel price of these two cars is 5:6. Therefore, by multiplying these two ratios, we get that the costs of using these two cars is 15:12=5:4,So the percentage of money saved is 1-\frac 54=\rm (A)20\%.