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Out of 80 students who appeared for the school exams in Mathematics (M), Physics (P) and Chemistry (C), 50 passed M, 30 passed P and 40 passed C. At most 20 students passed M and P, at most 20…

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Out of 80 students who appeared for the school exams in Mathematics (M), Physics (P) and Chemistry (C), 50 passed M, 30 passed P and 40 passed C. At most 20 students passed M and P, at most 20 students passed P and C, and at most 20 students passed C and M. The maximum number of students who could have passed all three exams is
  1. 13
  2. 40
  3. 20
  4. 30

Answer and explanation

Correct answer: C - 20

At most 2020 students can pass all three, since every such student also passed Mathematics and Physics, whose intersection is capped at 2020. The bound is attained with 2020 passing all three and 30,10,2030,10,20 passing only Mathematics, only Physics and only Chemistry, respectively. This accounts for all 8080 students and each subject total, while 3030 in all three would exceed each pairwise cap.

Practice for these exams

  • IPMAT Indore

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