Am I mistaken on this one???

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NeilWatson: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 48; Joined: Wed Oct 30, 2013 7:54 amFollowed by: 1 member

by NeilWatson » Sun Feb 23, 2014 4:51 pm

I saw this question in a text book and recognized it to be pretty easy, but the books explanation is completely different from what I thought.

Bradley owns b video games. If Bradley's total is 1/3 the total owned by Andrew and 4 times the total owned by Charlie, how many video games do the 3 of them have in terms of b?
My Answer:

Bradley - b
Andrew - 3b
Charlie - b/4

b+3b+b/4 = 5b/4

Or am I completely missing something here?

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Problem Solving | Sun Feb 23, 2014 4:51 pm

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Brent@GMATPrepNow: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 16207; Joined: Mon Dec 08, 2008 6:26 pmFollowed by: 1268 members; Location: Vancouver, BC; Thanked: 5254 times; GMAT Score:770

by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Sun Feb 23, 2014 7:55 pm

NeilWatson wrote:I saw this question in a text book and recognized it to be pretty easy, but the books explanation is completely different from what I thought.

Bradley owns b video games. If Bradley's total is 1/3 the total owned by Andrew and 4 times the total owned by Charlie, how many video games do the 3 of them have in terms of b?
My Answer:

Bradley - b
Andrew - 3b
Charlie - b/4

b+3b+b/4 = 5b/4

Or am I completely missing something here?

Everything is perfect up until you get to: b +3b + b/4 = 5b/4
Let's take it from b + 3b + b/4
This is the same as: b/1 + 3b/1 + b/4
Rewrite with a common denominator of 4 to get: 4b/4 + 12b/4 + b/4
Combine to get: [spoiler]17b/4[/spoiler]

Cheers,
Brent

Brent Hanneson - Creator of GMATPrepNow.com

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theCodeToGMAT: Legendary Member; Posts: 1556; Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2012 11:18 pmFollowed by: 34 members; Thanked: 448 times; GMAT Score:650

by theCodeToGMAT » Sun Feb 23, 2014 8:22 pm

Bradley = b
Andrew = a
Charlie = c

b = 1/3 * a
b = 4 * c

a + b + c
(3b) + b + (b/4)
(12b + 4b + b)/4
17b/4

R A H U L

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GMATGuruNY: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 15539; Joined: Tue May 25, 2010 12:04 pmFollowed by: 1906 members; Location: New York, NY; Thanked: 13060 times; GMAT Score:790

by GMATGuruNY » Sun Feb 23, 2014 11:37 pm

When you post a problem, please include the answer choices.

Bradley owns b video game cartridges. If Bradley's total is one-third the total
owned by Andrew and four times the total owned by Charlie, how many video
game cartirdges do the three of them own altogether, in terms of b?

(16/3)b
(17/4)b
(13/4)b
(19/12)b
(7/12)b

Let a = 12.
Then b = (1/3)*12 = 4.
Since Bradley owns 4 times the number owned by Charlie, c = 1.
Total = 12+4+1 = 17. This is our target.

Now plug b=4 into the answers to see which yields our target of 17.

Only answer choice B works:
(17/4)*4 = 17.

The correct answer is B.

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NeilWatson: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 48; Joined: Wed Oct 30, 2013 7:54 amFollowed by: 1 member

by NeilWatson » Mon Feb 24, 2014 9:01 am

AH ok perfect. Thanks guys.

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Abhishek009: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 359; Joined: Wed Mar 11, 2009 4:37 amFollowed by: 2 members; Location: Kolkata, India; Thanked: 50 times

by Abhishek009 » Mon Feb 24, 2014 9:13 am

NeilWatson wrote:Bradley owns b video games. If Bradley's total is 1/3 the total owned by Andrew and 4 times the total owned by Charlie

Plug in some values ,

Bradley own 12 Video Games

So Andrew Owns 36 Video Games

So Charles Owns 3 Video Games

Total Number of Video Games Own by the three of them is 51 ( 12 + 36 + 3 )Video Games

NeilWatson wrote:how many video games do the 3 of them have in terms of b?

Video games owned by the three of them in terms of b is 51 / 12 => 17/4

Hence answer will be 17/4

Abhishek

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