Question

One-third of the raw material required to manufacture certain goods got wasted as a result of a mistake committed by the workers. What percentage of the raw material left should be ordered to manufacture the required quantity of goods?

Answer 1

50%

Explanation:

Hi. Like me, are you wondering why "they" ask these things in such silly ways?

Because they KNOW how much material was wasted, either in pounds or tons or feet or square meters, or whatever. So why not just re-order THAT much more material?

They do it to make us play with and hopefully understand fractions, so let's do that. Using some of their words:

"What percentage of the raw material [is] left"?

Well, one third is gone, so what's left must be two thirds. See that?

See the one and the two? We need one of these things called "thirds," and we have two of them, so don't we just need half as many more of them?

And isn't "half" the same as 50%? So there's your answer.

But good luck to the person who calls the supplier and says, "Yeah, I need 50% more of the 500 pounds of plastic resin we have on hand."

"Don't you mean you need 250 pounds?"

"That's what I said."

"Yeah, but you said it in a silly way."

"Oh. Sorry."