5,693 people. That's my final answer.

 

60.

EDIT:

For those of you that actually care how I got the right answer, I calculated the average plate for one person by taking 1/2, 1/3, and 1/4. This tells me how many total plates each individual person had during the course of their dinner. From there you take 65 (total plates used) and divide it by 13/12 (individual plates used) and end up with 60.

Quick math is 65 / 13 * 12 = 60

Long math is 65 / (1/2 + 1/3 + 1/4) = 60

 

Yeah, I was off by a few. I just assumed that her chef was Jesus.

 

Oh and let me just say I really wish I was this good at Excel when I was in high school. Would have made things a lot easier. :lol:

 

61, trick question. Gotta count the chef, who obviously knows better than to eat his own food. :lol:

 

13/12ths is one half plus one third plus one fourth. (1/2+1/3+1/4)

 

Chef is the trick part of the question.

I thought it look like 65=x/4 etc

 

x is the total amount of people. 1 of 2 people ate the fruit plate. to calculate the amount of people who ate fruit, you would do 1/2 * x = Number of Fruit Plates. So if 10 people were at the party then there were 5 plates of fruit that were eaten.

With this you know that 1 out of 3 people at the vegetables and 1 out of 4 ate beef. That means the same thing as above.

Since you know the total number of plates, all you need to do is figure out x. 1/2x + 1/3x + 1/4x = 65.

To add fractions you have to find the common denominator and add accordingly. Which is what is the lowest number that all three divide into, which is 12.

6/12x + 4/12x + 3/12x = 65.

Add together the fractions you get 13/12x = 65.

Then you divide 13/12 from both sides, which is multiplying both sides by 12/13, and you get 60.

That is how I did it.

 

you pretty much did the same thing.

 

So 65 plates...

28.888 fruit plates
21.667 vegetables plates
14.444 beef plates

57.7778 people

 

that was easy. w/o doing the fractions, I just took my first guess: 60 people = 15 beef, 20 veggies + 30 fruit.