Bottle nosed dolphin question?..

[ankitmahajan1982]

Hello,

On average, the bottle-nosed dolphin comes up for air once every two minutes; the beluga whale, a close relative, comes up for air on average once every five minutes. The number of times a bottle-nosed dolphin would come up for air in a 24 hour period is approximately what percent greater than the number of times a beluga whale would come up for air in that same period?

The answer is 150%, but wouldn't that only be the answer if the question was "...what percent OF the number of times a beluga whale would come up for air in that same period." If it asks for the percent that it is greater, wouldn't the more accurate answer be 50%? In one hour the dolphin comes up 30 times and the beluga comes up 20 times. 30 is 50% greater than 20, although it is 150% of 20.

thanks
alexsunny

[esledge]

Hi alexsunny,

You have an arithmetic error here:

In one hour the dolphin comes up 30 times and the beluga comes up 20 times.

The beluga comes up every 5 minutes, so that's 12 times in an hour. Your other points about the difference between "percent greater than" and "percent of" are correct, it's just that the "percent greater than" calculation here is (30-12)/12 = 18/12 = 1.5 = 150%.