Question

Lennox High School is preparing a trip for 500 students. Red Dawg, the company providing transportation, has 10 buses of 50 seats each and 8 buses of 40 seats. There are only 11 drivers available. What's the least possible cost for the trip?

A) Use 9 large buses and 1 small bus
B) Use 10 large buses and 0 small buses
C) Use 8 large buses and 3 small buses
D) Use 4 large buses and 7 small buses

Answer 1

Given there are only 11 drivers, the least possible number of buses required to seat 500 students is 10 large buses with 50 seats each. Hence, the least possible cost for the trip is achieved by choosing to use 10 large buses, corresponding to option B.

Step-by-step explanation:

To determine the least possible cost for the trip organized by Lennox High School using Red Dawg company buses, we need to consider the number of available drivers and the seating capacity of each bus.

With only 11 drivers available, they can at most use 11 buses, regardless of their size. Since there are 500 students, we can calculate the minimum number of buses required to seat them all, by dividing the total number of students by the seating capacity of the larger buses (as they would potentially offer more seats per driver, leading to lower cost if there are no price differences between large and small buses).

500 students divided by the capacity of a large bus (50 seats) results in 10 buses as a minimum. Since 10 buses only need 10 drivers, all 11 drivers can be used without needing any small buses. Therefore, the most efficient configuration to minimize the number of buses (given there is no difference in cost between using large or small buses) would be to use 10 large buses, which corresponds to option B. This will involve using all large buses without the need for any small buses.