Question

In a medical certificate by mistake a candidate gave his height as 25% more than the actual. In the interview panel he clarified his height was 5 feet 5 inches. Find the percentage correction made by the candidate from his stated height to his actual height.
A. 28.56
B. 20
C. 25
D. 24

Answer 1

Hint: In this question, first of all identify the actual height of the candidate and convert his height from feet to inches. Then find the value of 25% of his height and add his to the actual height to get the mistaken height.

Complete step-by-step answer:
Given that a candidate gave his height as 25% more than the actual. But in panel interview they have clarified his height as 5 feet 5 inches.
So, the actual height of the candidate = 5 feet 5 inches
We know that 1 feet = 12 inches.
Hence, the height of candidate in inches \[ = 5 \times 12 + 5 = 60 + 5 = 65\]
Now, consider 25% of his actual height \[ = \dfrac{{25}}{{100}} \times 65 = \dfrac{{25 \times 65}}{{100}} = \dfrac{{1625}}{{100}} = 16.25\] inches
Hence, the mistaken height of the candidate = 65 + 16.25 = 81.25 inches
We know that the \[{\text{error}}\% = \dfrac{{{\text{mistaken heigth }} - {\text{ actual height}}}}{{{\text{mistaken height }}}} \times 100\]
So, the error percentage is
\[
   \Rightarrow {\text{error}}\% = \dfrac{{81.25 - 65}}{{81.25}} \times 100 \\
   \Rightarrow {\text{error}}\% = \dfrac{{16.25}}{{81.25}} \times 100 \\
   \Rightarrow {\text{error}}\% = 0.2 \times 100 \\
  \therefore {\text{error}}\% = 20 \\
\]
Thus, the correct option is B. 20

Note: \[x\% \] of \[y\] is given as \[\dfrac{{x \times y}}{{100}}\]. Percent error is the difference between estimated value and the actual value in comparison to the actual value and is expressed as a percentage. In other words, the percent error is the relative error multiplied by 100.