The bar show the amounts, in dollars, invested by company for material and labor to produce a certain product and the value of the sales for that product. The company claims that the amount invested for materials and labor is never more than 60% of the value of the sales. Which year or years disprove this claim?

Options

A. `2010`
B. `2012`
C. `2014`
D. `2012 and 2014`

Answer

B

Explanation

Difficult: Medium
Category: Problem Solving and Data Analysis/ Rates, Ratios, Proportions, and Percentages
Strategic Advice: When lots of information is presented in a graphic, make sure you look at the answer choice before you start calculating. Chances are that you'll only need to use a small part of the data.
Getting to the Answer: Manipulate the three part percent formula, percent `times` whole=part, to read Percent=part/whole (or here, percent=amount inversted/sales), and check each year given in the answer choices. To disprove the claim, you're looking for the year or years in which the percent is greater than 60% (greater than 0.6).
`2010 to (7.1)/(12)=0.59lt0.6`, so eliminate A.
`2012 to (10.1)/(15)=0.67gt0.6`. Don't choose (B) yet because 2012 is also in (D).
`2014 to (8.6)/(14.6)=0.59lt0.6`, so eliminate C and D. This means (B) is correct.