Averages, Mixtures and Alligations

Soln.

Let's break this up into two parts:

So first, initially 50 people were interviewed, that time the average was 34. But out of this 50, 2 of them
were not tourists.

The average of tourist guides is 58.

How are we saying that their average was 58 ? Because both of them are 58 years of age. We are asked
to find the average of the remaining 48.
There are two or three ways of doing this question.

First method is:

We would find the total age:

Then subtract 2x58, i.e. two people whose average age is 58:

And then divide by 48 to get the answer:

Looks like a pretty simple method. The only problem with this method is the calculation. 50x34 is
still not very difficult, but again division is going to waste a lot of time. So we don't prefer this
method so much.

Let's go on to the next method:

 Now one thing is very clear - the initial average was 34. So the new average has to fall down,
because two people who are more than 34 are leaving the group. This method has been discussed
in the concept videos.

34 is the current average. Subtract whatever extra is the age of the two guides.
58 - 34 = 24 and there are two such guides, divide by the new number of people, i.e. 48:

So our answer will be

This is a much faster method.

By the previous method also we could have gotten 33, but it would have taken a lot of time.

Let's go through that part again - 34 was the average. Because two people who left the group
were definitely more than 34, the average was going to fall; that is why the minus sign.

How much is the extra age above the average. They were 24 years older than the average. And
there were 2 people, hence, 24 x 2 = 48 divided by 48 (i.e. the number of people left over). That
gives us 1.

Soln:

It is told to us, that in class VII, there were 40 students.

And the average weight was 45 kgs.

 While there were 30 students in class VIII and the average was 52.

So out of the number of method, let's use the weighted average method:

Again, we notice in this method the problem is that the calculation are not very easy. They are not
very difficult. Because a lot of students get carried away, thinking that the calculations are not
very difficult; we really don't need to learn a different method, don't actually learn the method,
which is bad.

Let's look at the other method - We are going to use alligations to understand this. Yes, averages can
also be done through alligations.

So in case 1, the average was 45 kgs. In case 2, the average was 52 kgs and the combined average
is missing.
The number of students were 40 and 30. Let's just get that into a ratio:

Let's see a shortcut here, when the middle value of alligations is missing. What is the difference
between the two averages? The difference is 52 - 45 = 7 .

We need to make this difference. We need to make this difference equal to the sum of the ratio
which is given. Coincidently, in this case the sum of the ratio is also 7. So we really don't need to
do anything. Maybe we will come across a sum later, where we will actually have to work it out.
But right now because the difference of 7 and the sum 7 is the same, we really don't need to
change anything.
 Please remember that when we are changing, if we needed to change, we will always change with
the ratio. So 4:3 (read as 4 is to 3) can be written as 8:6 (read as 8 is to 6), or something like that.

Now because the sum and the difference are the same (i.e. 7) we can directly go as follows. 52
minus what number gives you 4? That number is 48 and hence, that is our final answer. So the
combined average was 48 kgs, and that is our answer.

So what we notice - zero calculations! There was hardly anything to do in the question which uses time.
Soln.

So in the first group there are 25 students and the average is 120.

While in the second group there are 35 students and the average was 126.

What is the average of both the groups combined?

So obviously we could have done the first method :

This will give us some answer. Let's see the other method - the method which we use for
alligations:

The average of the first group is 120. The average of the second group is 126.

The central value is missing. Number of students are 25 and 35.

Let's convert that to a ratio

Now what is the difference between 120 and 126? The difference over here is 6 and the sum of 5
and 7 is 12. So we can't use that.

We need to convert that 12 to 6, which means we need to divide by 2.

5 divided by 2 will come 2.5 & 7 divided by 2 will come 3.5.
Now let's just directly use alligations.
 126 minus what number gives us 2.5 ? That will be 123.5. 123.5 - 120 = 3.5, so we have also
checked our answer.

Hence, our answer is 123.5

So by now we have understood that the first method is unnecessary too long. The second method is
much much faster.
Soln.

Let's directly go to the second method.

The difference between 189 and 174 is 15. The sum of 9 and 6 is also 15.

We are lucky! The second method will work much faster. 189 minus what number will give us 9? That is
180, which is our final answer.
 The combined average of the squad is 180 cms.

Now again just checking the answer, 180 - 174 = 6. So we are correct there also. So 180 cms is
our final answer.

Soln.

The major change in the next question - Instead of 2 things, there are 3 things.
For India, the number of matches they played were 6 and the average was 28000.

Kenya played 4 matched with an average attendance of 18000, while England played 5 matches
with an average attendance of 24000.

So now, when we talk about average, the method is same. If we had done the first method, we
would have just considered

= (n1x1 + n2x2 + n3x3)/(x1 + x2 + x3)

Let's assume that we know this method.

Let's see the second method. How do we do the second method when we have three things?
We can't do the second method. So what we need to do over here is, let's take two of them, get
the answer and then we will do the same thing with the third one.

Since everything is in 1000's, we can just take the primal number - 28, 18 and 24.
The sum of 6 and 4 and the difference of 28 and 18 are the same. We got lucky again!

28 minus what number gives us 4? Always see the bigger number. So that will become 24.

That means, the combined average for India's and Kenya's matches was 24000.

Now again, we got very lucky because the average for England's matches was also 24000.
24000 for the first 10 matches and 24000 for the last 5 matches, If we have the same average
and we take it as many times as we want, the average will remain same. The average will still be
24000. So the average attendance for these three teams is 24000.
Soln.

In 2010, there were 10 employees and their average was 45.

In 2013, two eldest employees retired at the age of 60 years each.

So basically just before retiring, there were 10 employees with average age of 48 because in 3
years, everybody grew elder by 3 years. Now when they too retired, obviously the average age
of the company came down.

We will see how much that is, we will come to that. So 2013 there will be one more data with
only 8 employees and the average will be slightly lower than 48.

Now the average age in 2014 before the 3 people joined would be one year more than whatever
would be their average earlier.

And when these 3 employees joined, with a combined age of 50, which means the average age
was 50/3

So 2014, now there are 11 employees with some new average (we will see all this). What is the
average age of the company in 2015?
So we are going to use the method of total over here. In 2010, the total was 450, which was
actually not needed.

In 2013, before the two employees retired, it was 480

480, out of which we will subtract 120 because 2 employees retired, so 480 - 120 = 360 is the
total of 8 employees. So the average was 45.
45 is the average of those 8 employees, just after the two employees retired. So after one year
their average became 46,

or in other words their total became 368. Everybody increases by 1 year, so 8 people will
increase by one year, so the total would become 368.

Now the new total would be 368 + 50 = 418.

So 418 is the total of the 11 employees.

What is the average? 418/11 = 38.

So 38 was the average of the 11 employees, including the three interns in 2014. In 2015, the
average age would become 39 and that is the 4th option.
 We can see that the sum is not very simple and takes a bit of time, but this is the best way we
can do. We can just put the data down, one below the other carefully and keep seeing every
year what is happening.

Soln.

This is a very different sum. It could have fit in the chapter of numbers, maxima-minima, mod is
there and there is averages. A very very interesting question.

Let's take m = 2013, then k will come double of that, i.e. 4026.

So we have to write all positive integers from

Now let's understand the question. This is a trick question. 2013 and 4026 really does not
matter. The answer would come the same, whatever we use for k and m.

The number which we end with,

Will always be an even number because we are saying k is double of m. So whatever value we
take for m, k will always be an even number.

So when we see the sum for the first time, we can try it for just 10 numbers first. So we would
write down the first 10 numbers

and then we say, let's find the set of all even numbers.

Average of all the even numbers - average of 2, 4, 6, 8, 10. 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 forms an arithematic

progression, so their average would be 6.
 Hence, our E became 6.

And the average of the odd numbers, i.e. 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9, so their average would be 5.

So,

The only question was- will it always be 1? Did 2013 matter? It doesn't seem so, because to any
number we go, the two averages - the average of even number and the average of all the odd
numbers will always be consecutive numbers, because we are ending at an even number and
hence, the answer will always be 1. Hence, option 1.

Soln.

There are two ways to go about this.

The first method in fact this time, which is not alligations might turn out to be easier.
How much is 60% of 30? 18 litres. So we know that the acid is 18 litres and the remaining 12
litres is water. So this 18 litres remains constant. Therefore,

Assuming we are going to add x litres of water to it.

Which means the amount we need to add is 15 litres.

To understand this, let's see one more method - the method of alligations.

What was the original conc. Of nitric acid. Solution 1 had nitric acid at 60 %. What we added,
how much nitric acid was there in that? Nothing, because everything was water, which means
there was 0 nitric acid.
 In the mixture we want nitric acid at 40, which means, if we now use alligations (60 -40 = 20 and
40 - 0 = 40 )

So two liquids have to be in the ratio

The second method is also a very nice method. Also helps us understand what questions we can
do with alligations and what questions we cannot do with alligations.

Soln.

This is a question on replacement. In the concepts explained, there was exact same concept on
simple replacement. So he has done the process twice, i.e. removed 20 l and replaced it with
water. Let's understand the right method for it. Even though the numbers are easy, you might
find it easy by actually taking the numbers, let's look at the method. 20 litres is how much
compared to the original content? It is (1/5)th. So we are removing (1/5)th of the original acid.
After the first transaction, how much acid is left? It is,
 And second time again, we are removing 20 litres. Even second time when we are removing 20
litres, there will be water as well as acid. It doesn't matter, but the amount of acid left over will
still be (4/5)th.

This means, after two transactions, we will be left with,

Which means automatically there would be 36 litres of water.

Let's look at the second part of the question.
One thing is we could just keep continuing - after two processes we have reached 64 litres.
What if we do the process one more time?

This is just above 50. One more time we do the process, it is definitely go below 50, no question
about it. Hence, our answer will be:

Soln.:

This question looks very similar to the previous one. So the difference between this question
and the previous one - in the previous one, we had the initial capacity which was 100 litres and
then 20 litres was removed. So it was easier to do (1/5) of that and (4/5) was remaining.
The same method can be used here also.

So let's say,

We are removing 10 litres. This means if we look carefully, we are removing

So we will be left with,

So let's do that two times,

So this will be the amount of honey.

How did we get a 81 there ? Because we are not talking about how much water is there. 49:32 is
honey to water. 49:81 is the initial quantity. So x cuts from Nr and Dr:

Take square root on both sides,

So the initial quantity in the vat was 45 l.

Now this method was nice. In fact, it gives us a resemblance to the previous method.
But we can actually do this sum with a direct formula also. Let's see another method to do this
question.

Where a is the initial quantity of wine and b is that quantity which we are removing everytime.
So this is specially used when we don't have the value of a.

Sometimes there is an advantage of learning the formulae by heart. We save some extra
seconds in the test.
Soln.

We can actually work very easily with the real values. So if we work with only, say water (we can
work with anything - milk or water). So if we work with only water,

This will be the quantity of water. Let's find it:

So out of the total 10 litres (approx. slightly more than 3 litres is water). (25/8) is water out of 10
litres. So milk will be

Hence, our ratio will be

This is water is to milk. Milk to water will be 11:5.

Also understand that such questions can also be done through alligations but there is no need to
go through alligations in this. It is a pretty straight-forward question.
Soln.
Using the 56,000, we will be able to find his average. So he has earned 56,000 on an investment
of 2 lakhs. Let's convert that to a percentage:

Let's use alligations,

31 - 28 = 3 and 28 - 21 = 7.

They want us to find how much he invested in A. Investment in A is,

 1,40,000 was invested in A and the remaining 60,000 was invested in B.

Soln.

This is a question on alligations but with 3 things. Whenever we see this question in the test and
if the question has options with one of the options as "Cannot be determined", the answer for
such question will always be "Cannot be determined". Why is that? Because, whenever there
are 3 things, there will be multiple solutions. So we are going to see the multiple solutions, i.e. at
least two answers.
Now we know 18 and 25, in whatever ratio we mix, we will never get 26. So we are going to take
first, 18 with 28.

So if we mix 1 kg of Rs. 18 variety and 4 kgs of Rs. 28 variety, our average will come out to be 26.
Same thing let's do with 25 and 28,
Which means if we mix 25 and 28 in the ratio 2:1, we will again get 26. Now in this case, if we
mix 26 and 26 again in any ratio, it will give us 26 only. So we can use 1 kg of Rs. 18, 2 kgs of Rs.
25 and 4+1 = 5 kgs of Rs. 28.

So this answer will give us an average of 26. Now how can this sum have multiple solutions.
Please understand that the values 1:4 and 2:1 are ratios. 2:1 can also be written as 4:2 or
anything else. For instance, if we would have written 2:1 in the second case as 4:2, our final ratio
would be

So we have a different answer. If we try it with this also, the average would be Rs. 26 per kilo.
This means, whenever there are 3 varieties and we are going to mix them in some ratio, the
answer will always be "cannot be determined", because there are multiple answers.
Soln.

So in the mixture we want iced tea to water in the ratio 3:1.

Let's work only with iced tea first, (or we can work only with water, does not matter; we can work
with anyone of the liquids).
The amount of iced tea in the first vessel is

The amount of iced tea in the second vessel is

And the amount of iced tea we want in the mixture is

Let's go through that again - (7/10) iced tea in vessel 1, (21/25) in vessel 2 and (3/4) in the third
vessel. Let's use alligations. When we use alligations with different denominators, it's always
slightly easier to do the LCM first only. So for example, the LCM of 10 and 4, we know will be 20.
The LCM of 20 and 25 we know will be 100, which means the LCM of all these numbers will be
100. So it will be much easier if we take the LCM right now before taking the alligation, which
means we can write it as:
We get,

100 cuts out. So the final answer will be

Please understand that you could have done this question, only through water also. So if you do
the whole thing with just water you would have got the same answer.
Soln.

This is a similar question to that of alligations, but a small part of profit and loss is added to it.

Now he has added 6 litres of water, so the water has come free. We could take any number and
start. Let's assume he has got 'x' litres of milk initially. So his total cost price is 30x initially, which
means the selling price will be 13% extra

So his selling price will be,

When he is selling, he is again selling at 30 only, but instead of x litres, he is selling (x+6) litres,

This calculation should give us x now.

Straightforward question. So it means initially he had 40 litres. Let's just quickly check our answer,

40 litres he had bought for Rs. 30, which was a total investment of 1200. While selling he has 46
litres, which means he was still selling for Rs. 30.
 So the profit is 180. You just need to check if 180 is 15% of 300. Yes it is and hence our answer is
correct.
This sum was very easy because both the numbers were Rs. 30 (i.e. selling price). If it was
different, maybe the calculation was slightly more.

Soln.

There is 25 litres water with 75 litres milk, which means initially there is 100 litres quantity out
of which milk is 75 litres and water is 25 litres.

1/5th when he sells, i.e. 1/5th out of the mixture. Milk also comes out only 1/5th and you are
replacing it with water. So milk is the quantity which is only going out. So it's always easier to do
with milk, the whole sum.
Initially the amount of milk was 75 litres. When you sell (1/5)th you are left with (4/5)th of milk
which is 60 litres milk.

The total quantity was still 100 litres only. Everything else is water. 40 litres is water. So the ratio
will be

Hence, option 3.
Now if you don't want to do this method, we can also work with numbers, because numbers are
pretty easy in this case. 75 litres- milk and 25 litres- water. Let's first look at milk. How much milk
gets sold? 1/5th i.e. 15 litres gets sold out, and hence

Same for water, 5 litres gets sold out

After this we are adding no milk, so the milk remains 60 litres while water is added to replenish
the whole thing to make the water as 40 litres.
Soln.

So let's first concentrate on finding the cost price. His average cost price. When the selling price is
69, he is making a profit of 15%. Just in previous sum we had done 15% was 3/20.

So,

This means the shopkeeper has to reach an average price of Rs. 60. So straightforward question of
alligation, we need to know the ratio.

So the final answer would be,