Most of the following solution was submitted by Farrukh Jawed of
Beaconhouse, Lahore.
The number of candidates
is 50 and the mean score
is 60. For there to be the maximum number of students who gained 100
marks the rest must score 0. Let
be the number who gained 100
and z be the number who gained 0 marks. Then
so
. Therefore, 30 students scored 100 and 20 students
scored 0.
The standard deviation is given
by
so the standard deviation
to 3 s.f.
For a lower standard deviation it is not possible for so many
students to score 100. Now suppose the standard deviation
. If
candidates score 100 then, as the marks of the remaining
48 candidates contribute to the standard deviation, we know
so we know
so
.
If the standard deviation is a little higher, say 8.2. Then
so
. As
is a whole number it
could be 2 (but not more than 2).
If 2 students got 100, and the mean is 60, the sum of all the marks
is 3000 and the sum of the scores of the remaining 48 students is
2800. Then 2800/48 = 58.3333.... so one set of results might be 47
students getting 58 marks, the 48th getting 74 marks, and 49th and
50th getting 100 marks. In this case the standard deviation is :
which gives
.
Another set of possible scores with a lower standard deviation,
around 8.2 or less, requires all candidates who don't score 100 to
get scores as near to 60 as possible. Suppose
candidates
score 59 and (
score 58 then
so
. In this case 2 candidates score 100, 16 score 59 and 32
score 58. The standard deviation is given by
So the standard deviation is 8.178 to 3 d.p.
If the standard deviation
, as we know that the
number of candidates who score 100 is always less than
the number who could have scored 100 is less than
so it is impossible for any of the candidates to have scored 100.