Stuart Kovinsky wrote:For (1), I'd do it by trial and error.
One thing that's important to remember about the GMAT is that no one is allowed a calculator. As a result, if you find yourself doing lots of complicated calculations, you're probably on the wrong track.
We know the 11 numbers average to 12000. 11 is a weird number of terms, there has to be a reason why it was chosen.
Let's keep life as simple as possible and see if we get lucky:
If 10 of the terms were 100 over the average, then the last term would be 1000 under the average (maybe that's why the testmaker chose 11!).
So, the 10 big terms would each be 12100, the smallest term would be 11000.
Hey! 12100 is exactly 10% greater than 11000! We've achieved maximum spread allowed, which means that 11000 is indeed the minimum number we can pick (if we chose any smaller number, then we'd have to make one of the other numbers bigger, which would mean a spread > 10%).
Would this approach get you 10/10 on a highschool math test? No, of course not. However, we need to remember that the GMAT is definitely NOT a highschool math test - we only get credit for the right answer. Finding creative solutions to problems (including picking numbers, a great GMAT strategy) is what will lead to maximum success on test day.
Hi Stuart/ Spamjet
First of all THANKS a lot guys for your time.
I think I have figured out the solution for this which consists of simple highschool maths without too much calculation.
since no other province can have population > 10% of other state. This simply means that all the states will have population which is 110 % of smallest population which is x. So now we have an equation which is.
x + 10* 1.1 * x = 132000
=> x + 11 x = 132000
=> 12 x = 132000
=> x = 132000/12
=> x = 11000
Thanks
Komal
