ShmoopTube

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Here's another unshmoopy question for ya...

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The graph below shows the results of the mayoral race for the town of Shmoopville.

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Which of the following statements is true?

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Here are the possible answers:

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So... this is another "can you read a graph?" question.

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The question is asking us to compare the various answers as relative fractions or multiples

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of each other. No short cuts here.

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We have to actually identify a number with

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each candidate -- that is, how many votes did each one get?

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...and then just go one by one through the potential answers and ask... deal? Or no deal?

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So let's start with candidate 1.

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If we carefully note where the bar is, it stops at 13,000. Jot it down.

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And while we're here, let's note the totals for the other candidates...

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Candidate 2 got 26,000 votes,

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Candidate 3 got 16,000,

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and Candidate 4 got 29,000. And remember, this is in thousands of votes...

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not millions, not tens, not dollars raised for their campaign, not number of political

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favors... We are going to get a ton of curve balls thrown

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at us, so we always need to make sure we're aware of exactly what these numbers represent.

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Okay, now we just go back to potential answer A

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and it says that candidate 4, with 29,000 votes...

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...received twice as many as candidate 1,

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who won 13,000 votes. Two times 13 is 26, not 29... so A is a big fat no... or false.

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Potential answer B: candidate 2, at 26,000 votes, had 50% more votes than candidate

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3, who had 16,000 votes. Well, 50% of 16 is the same as half of 16

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which is 8... the questions asks for 50% MORE votes, so we'd add the 8 to the 16 and get

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24 thousand votes. 24 does not equal 26 so B is also a big fat no.

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Moving on.

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Potential answer C: candidate 4 with 29,000 votes

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won the election with about 35% of the total votes.

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OK, a bit tricky here.

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It's a two-parter. First, did candidate 4 win?

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Well, yes she did -- the graph tells us that much. But we also have to figure out if she won

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with about 35% of the TOTAL votes -- so we have to add up ALL the votes first...

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If we add the votes for the 4 candidates, we see that the total votes in the election

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were 13 plus 26 plus 16 plus 29... or 84,000 votes.

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Is 29,000 about 35% of 84,000? It most certainly is!

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So C is a definite yes here. And just to be sure D is wrong and we didn't

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miss something, it's a good idea to do check that one, too

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D is roughly the same as C, only it asks -- did Candidate 4 win with 50% of the votes?

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Well, 50% of the votes of the total of 84,000 would be 42,000...

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...so unless there were some Russian election "ballot helpers" there, candidate 4 only

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had 29,000 votes, and was closer to that 35% figure.

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As always, remember that the exam is asking us for the BEST answer, not always the perfect one.

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