Minutes earlier

This topic has expert replies
Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 59
Joined: Fri Aug 14, 2009 12:03 am

Minutes earlier

by caspermonday » Mon Oct 19, 2009 9:33 am
Question from EST 37:

If it is 6:27 in the evening on a certain day, what time in the morning was excatly 2,880,717 minutes earlier?
a) 6:22
b) 6:24
c) 6:27
d) 6:30
e) 6:32

OA D
Why? Thank you!
Source: — Problem Solving |

User avatar
Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 106
Joined: Mon Sep 28, 2009 9:29 am
Location: Boston, MA
Thanked: 26 times
Followed by:2 members
GMAT Score:700

Re: Minutes earlier

by asamaverick » Mon Oct 19, 2009 10:10 am
D it is.

Here is my approach:

1 day = 1440 minutes
.5 day = 720 minutes

Now consider 2,880,717, if you look at this and try to convert it into the above numbers you can arrive at this:
2,880,717 = 2,880,000 + 720 - 3 = 2880 (1000) + .5 day - 3 minutes

So starting from 6.27 today evening subtracting 2,880,717 minutes is the same as adding 3 minutes to morning 6.27 1000 days ago. Hence 6.27 + 3 = 6.30 AM is the answer.

Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts
Posts: 11
Joined: Wed Sep 02, 2009 6:06 am
Thanked: 1 times

by aakar » Mon Oct 19, 2009 10:12 am
Not sure if this is the correct method but this is how I went about it.

Since the answer choices are all within the 6 o'clock hour, you realize that you only need to find the minutes left-over in how many hours are actually in: 2,880,717 minutes.

So: 2,880,717 mins / 60 mins = 4,8011 hours and 57 minutes. Subtract 57 minutes by 27 and you will get, (27 + 60) - 57 or (27-27) = 0 minutes. 30 minutes left to subtract and so you get 60 minutes - 30 = 30...