# Thread: Job Selection Maths Questions

1. ## Job Selection Maths Questions

Hi,

As part of a job selection process I have to do a maths test, I have seen a sample of 4 questions, but I have no idea how to answer these, or what area of maths these are really under so that I can learn.

If anyone can help me that would be grateful, The questions are:

1) A production worker wanted to speed up a job that normally took 125 minutes by using two identical machines. If machine A was used 1.5 times more than machine B, how much time was taken by the machine that was operating longer?

2) A software company has 180 employees of whom 4/5 are software engineers and 1/5 are sales representatives. To obtain a 25 percent sales representation proportion, how many additional employers should be added to the sales sraff

3) A company decided to install a fountain within its main entrance lobby. If the fountain is to be 244 centimetres wide and 366 centimetres long and 91 centimetres deep, how much water (rounded to the nearest litre) would be required to fill the fountain to a depth of 61 centimetres? (1 litre = 1000 cubic metres.)

4) A manufacturer of printer toner adjusts its price of colour toner from $38 to$40 a cartridge and the price of standard black ink toner from $31 to$32 a cartridge. If a document printing centre spends an average of $1600 a month for toner, of which 3/5 is for colour cartridges, how much more per month will the printing centre spend under the new prices? I would just like to point out that I am very much a novice when it comes to maths, any help would be greatly appreciated! 2. Hi there amathsnovice, Originally Posted by amathsnovice 2) A software company has 180 employees of whom 4/5 are software engineers and 1/5 are sales representatives. To obtain a 25 percent sales representation proportion, how many additional employers should be added to the sales sraff First thing to do is find the percentages/number of employees in the original problem. Engineers: 4/5 of 180 = 144. This was 80% Sales: 1/5 of 180 = 36. This was 20% For the new Sales figure to be 25% then the new Engineers figure should be 75%. Do you follow? So let's find the new total amount given this information. We know there is to be no additional works in the Engineering department therefore we can solve 75% of x = 144. x will be the total number of employees and the new number of Sales will be x-144. Therefore the increase of desired Sales staff will be (x-144)-36. What do you get? Next time be mindful of our forum's rules which state you must show your workings and where you are stuck this will maximise the chances of recieveing help. kind regards, 3. Originally Posted by amathsnovice 4)A manufacturer of printer toner adjusts its price of colour toner from$38 to $40 a cartridge and the price of standard black ink toner from$31 to $32 a cartridge. If a document printing centre spends an average of$1600 a month for toner, of which 3/5 is for colour cartridges, how much more per month will the printing centre spend under the new prices?
Color: 1600(3/5) = 960; 960/38 = 25.26....; 25.26*2 = 50.52 (the "2" is $2 per cartridge) Black: 1600-960 = 640; 640/31 = 20.64....; 20.64*1 = 20.64 (the "1" is$1 per cartridge)
So extra spending = 50.52 + 20.64 = $71.16 4. Number 4 is as follows: $1600*\frac{3}{5}=960$ spent on color ink. 1600-960=$640 spent on black ink.

There is approximately a 5.26% increase in the price of color ink.

There is approximately a 3.23% increase in the price of black ink.

There will be a corresponding increase in the money spent.

$960*0.0526=50.5$ more dollars must be spent on color ink.

$640*0.0323=20.67$ more dollars must be spent on black ink.

$50.5+20.67=71.17$ more dollars must be spent per month.

5. 1) A production worker wanted to speed up a job that normally took 125 minutes by using two identical machines. If machine A was used 1.5 times more than machine B, how much time was taken by the machine that was operating longer?
You are told that A was used more than B so "the machine that was operating longer" is A.

One way to do this: let t be the time, in minutes, machine B was operating. Then A was operating 1.5t minutes. Together they were used for t+ 1.5t= 125 minutes. Solve for t but then, because t is the time B was operating, multiply by 1.5 to get the time A was operating.

Another way: let t be the time, in minutes, that maching A was operating. Then B was operating t/1.5= (2/3)t minutes. Together they were used for t+ (2/3)t= 125 minutes. Solve that for t and you are done.

Quite frankly, if you have no idea how to do problems on a "job selection" test, you probably aren't cut out for that job.

6. Thank you for the help, I am currently going through and trying to understand the responses, I understand rtblue's method perfectly for Question 4, and thanks Wilmer for an alternative method.

HallsofIvy unfortunatly im a little confused on the notation used, is there any chance you could break it down for me so that I could work back through the maths to figure out the method? As it stands I simply dont understand the method.

The issue im having is, im applying to a big company that gets hundreds of applicants, im a top notch programmer and have even done more abstract maths, but when it comes back to 'normal' maths I havent touched it for years. Luckily if I get the job I wont have to deal with this style of maths again, its simply a formality, an easy way for them to statistically cut down on applicants.

Pickslides Thats why im having trouble with the response you gave as a total maths novice I dont even understand how to solve something which you will find easy.

For that question following on from the fact that 75% of x = 144.

I understand that I need to get the total, so I would do

144/75x100

So I understand that the total is 192 employeers in the company so a quarter of this (to represent the sales staff) would be 192/4 = 48?

Am I right in thinking then that we minus 48 from the old number of staff (36) to get the answer 12?

Many thanks for the help so far guys! Also, what area of maths is this under, what type of section of a textbook should I look at to learn more about these types of problems?

7. Originally Posted by amathsnovice
Pickslides Thats why im having trouble with the response you gave as a total maths novice I dont even understand how to solve something which you will find easy.

For that question following on from the fact that 75% of x = 144.

I understand that I need to get the total, so I would do

144/75x100

So I understand that the total is 192 employeers in the company so a quarter of this (to represent the sales staff) would be 192/4 = 48?

Am I right in thinking then that we minus 48 from the old number of staff (36) to get the answer 12?
You have it! Well done...