Question

A newspaper article reports the results of an election between two candidates. The article says that Smith received 10% of the votes and that Murphy received 1 5 of the votes. A reader writes in to complain that the article cannot be accurate. What reason might the reader have to say this?

If all the votes were for Smith or Murphy, then 10% plus ?% should equal ?%, but actually equals ?%.

Answer 1

If Murphy received 1 out of every 5 vote, then he received 1/5•100%=20% of the votes. If there where two candidates, then the percentage of their votes together must equal 100%, but if Murphy received 20% and Smith received 10%, then 20%+10%=30%, so the article can’t be accurate.