6. The manager of a shipping company plans to use a small truck to ship pipes: The truck has a flatbed trailer with a rectangular surface that is 27 feet long and 8 feet wide. The truck will travel from Atherton to Bakersfield, where some pipes will be delivered, and then on to Castlewood to deliver the remaining pipes. The map shows the roads that connect Atherton. Bakersfield. and Castlewood. The manager is planning to buy a new truck with better gas mileage. He collected data bout the gas mileage of one of the company's trucks. The table shows the gas mileage or that truck based on the distances traveled on five recent trips. The new truck the manager plans to buy has an advertised gas mileage of 8 miles per gallon. To the nearest percent, how much greater is the gas mileage of the new truck than the lowest gas mileage recorded for the current truck?
Answer: D
The gas mileage of the new truck is 33% greater than the lowest gas mileage recorded for the current truck.
To determine how much greater the gas mileage of the new truck is compared to the lowest recorded gas mileage of the current truck, we find the difference and then calculate the percentage increase. The new truck has a gas mileage of 8 miles per gallon, and when comparing it to the lowest recorded mileage, the difference is significant enough to yield a 33% increase.
A) 14
This option is incorrect as it underestimates the percentage increase. A calculation based on the provided values shows that the difference between the new truck's mileage and the lowest mileage is larger than what would result in a 14% increase.
B) 25
This option is also incorrect. While it suggests a reasonable improvement, the calculations show that the actual increase from the lowest recorded mileage to the new truck's mileage exceeds a 25% increase based on the values provided.
C) 23
This option is not accurate. Similar to the previous options, a 23% increase does not reflect the correct calculation when comparing the new truck's gas mileage to the lowest figure recorded for the current truck.
D) 33
This is the correct answer, as the calculations indicate that the new truck's gas mileage of 8 miles per gallon is indeed 33% greater than the lowest mileage recorded for the current truck. This reflects a significant improvement, justifying the manager's decision to invest in a new vehicle.
Conclusion
The correct answer is 33%, as it accurately represents the percentage increase in gas mileage from the lowest recorded figure to the new truck's mileage. All other options fail to capture the true extent of the improvement, making option D the only valid choice based on the data provided.