The given pie chart shows the annual agricultural production (in tonnes) in a region. The total production is 8600 tonnes. Rice — 25% wheat — 23% Pulses — 21% Grams — 17% maize — 14% What is the annual production of rice in the region?
- (a)5012 tonnes
- (b)1052 tonnes
- (c)2150 tonnes
- (d)2051 tonnes
Answer
Why
Correct — C. The chart labels rice 25% and the stem fixes the total at 8600 tonnes, so this is one multiplication.
Rice = 25% of 8600
= 8600 × 25⁄100
= 8600 ⁄ 4 = 2150 tonnes → option (c)
The five labelled slices — rice 25, wheat 23, pulses 21, grams 17, maize 14 — add to 100, so the percentages are of the whole 8600 and need no scaling.
Why the others are wrong
- (a)5012 tonnes — 5012 tonnes is about 58% of 8600, not 25%. Every option here is a shuffle of the digits 0, 1, 2 and 5, so only the arithmetic separates them, never the look of the number.
- (b)1052 tonnes — 1052 is roughly 12% of 8600 — about half the rice share. No slice on this chart is labelled 12%, and halving 25% is not what 'production of rice' asks for.
- (d)2051 tonnes — 2051 is 2150 with the 1 and the 0 swapped — the same four digits in a different order. 8600 ÷ 4 = 2150 exactly, so read all four digits before marking.
Concept
A pie chart states shares, not amounts. Its slices sum to 100% when labelled in per cent, or to 360° when labelled in degrees, and the actual quantities exist only once a total is supplied — here, 8600 tonnes in the stem.
So every question of this type is the same two moves: read the right slice, then multiply the total by that per cent. The chart tells you nothing about tonnes on its own.
Where a chart is labelled in degrees instead, convert first: 1% = 3.6°, so a 90° slice is a quarter.
The stem, the chart and the question sentence are printed as one image in the paper. The slice labels are small — misreading 25% as 26% gives 2236, which is not on the option list at all, so an answer that is not offered usually means a misread label rather than bad arithmetic.
Key facts
- A percentage pie chart's slices sum to 100%, and a chart labelled in degrees sums to 360°.
- The slices here are rice 25%, wheat 23%, pulses 21%, grams 17% and maize 14%.
- A slice's amount is (slice % × total) ÷ 100, and 25% of any number is that number divided by 4.
Study next
Common traps
- Answering the wheat slice, 23%, when the question names rice
- Treating the labelled per cent as if it were already a tonnage
- Checking that the slices total 100 and then forgetting to multiply by 8600
A pie chart cannot be answered in tonnes or rupees until a total is supplied — here 8600 tonnes, stated in the stem rather than read off the picture.
At 13 Sep 2024, 09:00, Quant Q.20 the total is 1200 fruits and the question wants the combined central angle of two slices — the same reading, converted to degrees.
A heavier build, a pie chart plus a table of male-to-female ratios over 1600 employees, is at 12 Sep 2024, 16:00, Quant Q.9.
Related PYQs
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