Less than - Word Translations

[alexei.cancino]

Question comes from a Manhattan CAT
"One-third less than 25% of 180 is equal to:"

a)15
b)30
c)35
d)40
e)45


I originally understood this problem as: ¼(180)-1/3
rather than

¼(180)(1/3) as the explanation says

If the question would have provided a number say, 5 less than w/e then it would be ¼(180) - 5 right? My reasoning is that when it comes whole numbers you take them literally but when it comes to fractions you multiply them? Appreciate if anyone could clarify. Thanks!

Answer is B

[amanvij.1989]

There is bit of difference between them but main thing to look for here is What needs to be subtracted from 1/4*180
Read the question carefully
"One-third less than 25% of 180 is equal to:"

It says 1/3rd less than something say "X"
ie X-1/3rd of X
now that X here is :
25% of 180= 1/4*180=45

so,
45-45(1/3)........

In case of less than '5'
it would be just be subtraction with 25% of 180
The thing to note here is in the question nothing multiplied is given that gets multiplied with 5 .


But in case of fraction or % there is a dependency on some other value/variable.
Thats y 1/3 "rd" is mentioned, otherwise if 1/4*180-1/3 needs to be done it would simply be written 1/3 and NO "rd"as suffex

[jen]

This is Jennifer (instructor) here. Interesting question!

If I said, "Seven less than 10," you would do 10-7, of course.

But if I say 25% less than 100, you would do 100 - 0.25(100), or 100 minus 25% of itself.

Saying "one-third less than 25% of 180" is more like the second situation. 25% of 180 is 45, so we want one-third less than 45, or 2/3 of 45, which is 30.

Sincerely,
Jen

[alexei.cancino]

Thanks for the responses!

[amanvij.1989]

I found a question pertaining to this topic.....

Q) In April,John used 1/5 of his salary for house repair
which is x and 1/6 less than house repair for car repair which is y.
Which of the following is correct ?
a) x+y=11/30
b) y-x=1/30
c) x+y=7/30
d)x-y=1/6

Read the question carefully first part says 1/5 of his salary which is = 1/5th of salary =1/5(salary)
In the second part it says 1/6 less than than house repair= car repair


this is y=x-1/6
Had he being saying 1/6th we would have taken y=x-1/6x


The answer given at the back is though (c,d),but i guess its miss print what we can get from here is only d .
Please correct me if i am wrong specially in the last part.

[tommywallach]

Hey Amanvij,

Hmm, it's tough to understand the question from the way you've written it. Did you copy it exactly as written? The reason why I ask is that I've never see a question that says something like "1/6 less than house repair for car repair which is y." They have to say 1/6th OF SOMETHING to make it clear.

Of course, you may very well be right that this is an illustration of the point made above, but it's hard to see right now.

Thanks!

-t