Question

a survey is given to children and adults about their favorite meal of the day.

• breakfast is preferred by one and half times more children than adults.
• children and adults both had 24 respondents for dinner.
• there were 62 adults who responded lunch, twice as great as the number of children who responded lunch.

the results are shown in the table.

	favorite meal
----	----	----	----	----
group	breakfast	lunch	dinner	total
children	30	31	24	85
adults	45	62	24	131
total	75	93	48	216

which category has an error in the table?
breakfast lunch
adults children

Explanation:

Step1: Check breakfast data

Given breakfast is preferred by one - and - half times more children than adults. If the number of children who prefer breakfast is 30, then the number of adults should be $30\div1.5 = 20$, not 45.

Step2: Check lunch data

There were 62 adults who responded lunch, twice as great as the number of children who responded lunch. So the number of children who responded lunch is $62\div2=31$, which is correct in the table.

Step3: Check dinner data

Children and adults both had 24 respondents for dinner, which is correct in the table.

Step4: Check totals

For children: $30 + 31+24=85$. For adults: $45 + 62+24 = 131$. Total: $85 + 131=216$. But the error is in the breakfast category data for adults.

Answer:

Breakfast