Problem Solving

Very Interesting Question I saw on some GMAT blog, I've solved it, posted here for people who would like to give it a try

Ami has three boxes, one filled with gold coins labelled
GOLD, another filled with silver coins labelled SILVER and
the last filled with both gold & silver coins labelled
MIXED. One day she finds that the labels on all the three
boxes have dropped down, she picks them up and labels them
back on the boxes,but now she is certain that all the three
boxes have been wrongly labelled.What is the minimum nos of
coins that Ami must pick from any of the boxes to label
them back correctly.

A 0
B 1
C 2
D 3
E 4

gabriel I've never seen a question like this one, pls indicate whether it is a valid GMAT question.

is the answer C

.. I have not seen a question like this one before on GMAT .. and more over u really dont use maths to solve the question , so not really sure if this is a GMAT question.

.. anyway me getting the answer as 1 .. Is it right samir ? .. how did i get the answer?.. well, I am not going to spoil it for everyone else .. will post my solution after some attempts by other members ..

.. but have to say it was a interesting question ..

Yes Gabreil, I also thought the same when I solved it as it doesn't require maths, just some logical thinking instead, but it is good, posted it here for a few people to try it out. Anyway now I'm a little more reassured that I wont see such a question on the GMAT. Thanks

The OA is 1

Answer should be 1, here is my logic ( I feel this is more of a logic question than a maths one)

It is given that all the boxes are incorrectly labelled - so the first box I would take a coin out of would be the one labelled Mixed (I know for sure it is not mixed) So if I get say a silver coin from it I can be sure the box is one with only silver coins

Now I have 2 boxes left -

Box no 2) Labelled Silver - this can have either Mixed or Gold coins

Box no 3) Labelled Gold - This can have only mixed coins ( it cant be Gold as the labell is incorrect, it cant be silver as box no 1 was silver)

So box no. 2 have to be Silver.

Samir is this correct???

Absolutely correct RI & so is the LOGIC.