What percent of water must be mixed with honey so as to gain 20 by selling the mixture at the cost p...........

Math and Mental Ability Profit and loss

What percent of water must be mixed with honey so as to gain 20% by selling the mixture at the cost price of honey?

This questions was previously asked in

UPSC CSAT, Previous year (2024)

20%

10%

To solve this:

- Let’s assume 1 litre of honey costs ?100.

- Mix x litres of water with 1 litre honey.

- Total mixture = (1 + x) litres, but cost price is only for honey (?100).

- Selling at cost price of honey means ?100 for (1 + x) litres.

- Gain = (Profit/Cost price) × 100 = [(Selling price - Cost price)/Cost price] × 100

- Here, total selling price = ?100 (mixture), but actual cost price (honey) = ?100.

- Water is free, so profit comes only from water added.

- Required gain = 20%.

- So, profit = 20% of ?100 = ?20, so profit = selling price – cost price = ?20

- That ?20 comes from selling x litres of water at honey’s cost.

- So, x × price per litre (?100/litre) = ?20 ? x = 20/100 = 0.2 litres.

- So, percentage of water in mixture = 0.2/(1+0.2) ×100 = 1/6×100 ˜ 16.67%

But for exam/option purposes, if we use the formula:

% gain = (Water / Honey) × 100

So, 20 = (Water/100) × 100 ? Water = 20% of honey

So, correct answer is:

Option:1, 20%

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