The Museum Ticket Policy
A museum website lists ticket terms:
"General admission is $18 for adults and $10 for students with valid ID. Children under 5 are free. Seniors 65 and older pay $12. Members receive a 20% discount on general admission but not on special exhibitions. Special exhibition tickets are $8 and must be purchased with admission; they cannot be bought separately. Refunds are available up to 24 hours before the visit; after that, tickets may be exchanged for another date within 30 days but not refunded."
A family visits: two adults (ages 40 and 67), one student with ID, and one child age 4. They want general admission plus special exhibition tickets for everyone who is admitted. They buy tickets 48 hours in advance, then need to change the date 12 hours before their visit.
1. Compute the total cost for general admission plus special exhibition for this family, showing each person's category.
Read the worked answer
Go person by person:
- Adult age 40: $18 admission.
- Adult age 67: qualifies as senior (65 and older), so $12 admission.
- Student with ID: $10 admission.
- Child age 4: under 5, so free ($0).
Admission subtotal: 18 + 12 + 10 + 0 = $40.
Special exhibition: $8 each, and it must be purchased with admission. The child under 5 is free for admission; the policy does not say exhibition is free for that child, so the safest reading is that the three paying visitors buy exhibition tickets: 3 × $8 = $24.
Total: 40 + 24 = $64.
The judgment call is the age-67 adult: the senior rate replaces the adult rate, it does not stack with it.
2. The family wants to change their date 12 hours before the visit. Can they get a refund? What are their options?
Read the worked answer
No refund. The policy says refunds are available up to 24 hours before the visit. Twelve hours before is inside the 24-hour cutoff, so the refund window has closed.
Their option is an exchange for another date within 30 days. The policy says that after the refund cutoff, tickets "may be exchanged for another date within 30 days but not refunded." So they can move the visit to a new date within 30 days, but they cannot get money back.
3. If one of the adults were a museum member, how would the cost change? Address both admission and exhibition.
Read the worked answer
The member discount is 20% off general admission but not special exhibitions. So only that adult's admission price changes; the exhibition tickets stay at $8 each.
Using the age-40 adult as the member: admission becomes 18 × 0.80 = $14.40, a savings of $3.60. The senior, student, and child prices are unaffected because the discount applies to the member's own admission only. Exhibition stays 3 × $8 = $24.
New total: 14.40 + 12 + 10 + 0 + 24 = $60.40.
The trap is applying 20% to the whole bill or to the exhibition tickets; the policy explicitly excludes exhibitions.