Question

A medical provider is doing a study to determine the average time spent waiting before an appointment. The current average wait time is 6 minutes, which is 20% longer than the average was when the study started. What was the average wait time then?

Options:
a. 3 minutes
b. 4 minutes
c. 5 minutes
d. 7 minutes

Answer 1

The original average wait time was 5 minutes before the increase to 6 minutes which is 20% longer.

Step-by-step explanation:

The average wait time is currently 6 minutes and this is 20% longer than the average wait time when the study started. To find the original average wait time, we need to divide the current average wait time by 1.20 (since 20% longer means it is 120% of the original time).

Original average wait time = Current average wait time / 1.20 = 6 minutes / 1.20 = 5 minutes.

Therefore, the original average wait time was 5 minutes, which makes option c the correct answer.