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QDS02716 - Can someone help with this question please?

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QDS02716 - Can someone help with this question please?

by forever_learning » Sat Mar 22, 2014 11:32 am
Of N candies in a bag, some are peppermint and the rest are spearmint. what is the value of N?

1.If 1 peppermint candy is removed from the N candies, 1/5 of the remaining candies would be peppermint
2.If 2 spearmint candies are removed from the N candies, 1/4 of the remaining candies would be peppermint

The answer given in GMATprep is C. Both but i can't make head or toe of it. Please help!
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Source: — Data Sufficiency |
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by paperpakis » Sat Mar 22, 2014 12:20 pm
Of N candies in a bag, some are peppermint and the rest are spearmint. what is the value of N?

1.If 1 peppermint candy is removed from the N candies, 1/5 of the remaining candies would be peppermint
2.If 2 spearmint candies are removed from the N candies, 1/4 of the remaining candies would be peppermint

The answer given in GMATprep is C. Both but i can't make head or toe of it. Please help!
Well we call P the peppermint and S the spearmint. We have N=P+S since they are all candies in the box.
Now we can infer from statement 1 that (N-1)*1/5=P-1 we dont have a solution for this we have 3 variables and only 2 equations

Statement 2 implies that S-2=(N-2)*1/4

Same here we can not do anything. But combined we can solve it and find the value of N[/quote]
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by forever_learning » Sat Mar 22, 2014 12:37 pm
you've interpreted the first statement correctly. Although the second equation is P = (N-2)*1/4.. which is what got me in the first place!

Thanks anyways!
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