Question

You are the manager of a retail store, and you have been tasked with finding the return rate on a certain brand of laptop computers. You have assembled the data on the number of computers sold and the number returned over the past six months in the table below.

Month
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar
Sold
1,621
1,752
1,848
1,634
1,725
1,780
Returned
223
415
421
560
330
304

Using the table as experimental data, if your store has 379 laptops returned in April, how many laptops are likely to have been sold in April?
a.
1,578
b.
1,740
c.
1,743
d.
2,219

Answer 1

First compute the overall return rate from the six months:

Total sold = 1621+1752+1848+1634+1725+1780 = 10,360
Total returned = 223+415+421+560+330+304 = 2,253

Return rate = 2,253 / 10,360 ≈ 0.2175 (21.75%).

If 379 laptops are returned in April, estimated sold ≈ 379 / 0.2175 ≈ 1,743.

Answer: c. 1,743