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In the month of August, Pentheus Corporation made $200,000

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In the month of August, Pentheus Corporation made $200,000

by Mike@Magoosh » Thu Dec 26, 2013 9:09 am
In the month of August, Pentheus Corporation made $200,000 in profit. Pentheus made 6% of that profit on the second Wednesday of August. If the profits that day were approximately 14.5% of the revenue for that day, then what was Pentheus's revenue on the second Wednesday of August?
(A) $65,536
(B) $75,025
(C) $77,922
(D) $80,000
(E) $82,756

This is a tough problem without a calculator, but it can be solve relatively easily with some insightful back-solving. For a full discussion of the appropriate solution, as well as the OA & OE, see:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/backsolving-on-gmat-math/

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by Stuart@KaplanGMAT » Thu Dec 26, 2013 5:11 pm
Mike@Magoosh wrote:In the month of August, Pentheus Corporation made $200,000 in profit. Pentheus made 6% of that profit on the second Wednesday of August. If the profits that day were approximately 14.5% of the revenue for that day, then what was Pentheus's revenue on the second Wednesday of August?
(A) $65,536
(B) $75,025
(C) $77,922
(D) $80,000
(E) $82,756

This is a tough problem without a calculator, but it can be solve relatively easily with some insightful back-solving. For a full discussion of the appropriate solution, as well as the OA & OE, see:
https://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/backsolving-on-gmat-math/

Mike :-)
Not to derail a Magoosh post, but this one is actually solvable very quickly without backsolving or a calculator (although I'm generally a huge fan of backsolving!) as long as you know your common percent/fraction/decimal equivalences.

First, we need the profit on that day: 1% of $200000 is $2000, so 6% is 6*$2000 = $12000.

Now we know that $12000 is 14.5% of the revenue. That's an annoying equation to solve, unless you recognize that 14.5% is just a smidge over 1/7 (know those common conversions!). Accordingly, the revenue is a bit less that $12000 * 7 = $84000... choose (E)!
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