Two teams are distributing information booklets. Team A distributes 60% more boxes of booklets than Team B, but each box of Team A's has 60% fewer booklets than each box of Team B's. Which of the following could be the total number of booklets distributed by the two groups?

A)2,000
B)3,200
C)4,100
D)4,800
E)4,900

j_shreyans wrote:Hi Guru ,


Thanks for the explanation, one thing why do we take 5 for team B.

Can we take any value or is there any restriction.

Pls suggest

[email protected] wrote:Hi j_shreyans,

For this PS question, you're going to have to TEST THE ANSWERS, but only after you've done some algebra first.

We're told that there are 2 teams: Team A and Team B.

Team A distributed 60% more boxes than Team B....

Team A = 1.6X boxes
Team B = X boxes

Each box of Team A's has 60% fewer booklets than each box of Team B's:

Team A = .4Y booklets
Team B = Y booklets

Team A = (1.6X)(.4Y) = .64XY booklets
Team B = (X)(Y) = XY booklets

Total booklets = 1.64XY where X and Y are integers....

The question asks which of the 5 answers COULD be the total number of booklets....In essence, the question is asking "which of the 5 answers yields an integer when divided by 1.64?

Since 1.64 is a "weird" decimal, we can multiply 1.64 by 100 (to get rid of the decimal, but we MUST multiply all of the answer by 100 also....

Now we're dealing with 164 = 41 x 4

Notice how Answer C, when multiplied by 100 equals 410,000? This is clearly divisible by 41. Since it ends in "00" it's also divisible by 4. This MUST be the answer.

Final Answer: C

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich