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To find the greatest value

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by gmattesttaker2 » Thu Feb 06, 2014 10:59 pm
Hello,


Can you please tell me what would be the best approach to solve something like the following:


Which of the following is greatest?
(A) 6√7
(B) 9√4
(C) 7√6
(D) 6√8
(E) 8√5

OA: B

I eliminated A because D is greater than A.
B is 9 x 2 = 18
For C, D and E I was wondering if I need to take the square roots and then perform multiplication or if there is a better way to solve this problem. Thanks for your help - Sri
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Source: — Problem Solving |

by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Thu Feb 06, 2014 11:17 pm
gmattesttaker2 wrote:
Which of the following is greatest?
(A) 6√7
(B) 9√4
(C) 7√6
(D) 6√8
(E) 8√5
One option is to take the integers in front of the roots and rewrite them as roots.
Then we'll use the fact that (√x)(√y)= √(xy)
I'll also use some general estimation. For example, (36)(7) is less than (40)(7) [aka 280]
So, √(36)(7) = √(some number less than 280)
Likewise, (81)(4) is greater than (80)(4) [aka 320]
So, √(81)(4) = √(some number greater than 320)
That's as precise as we need to be here.


Here's what I mean:
(A) 6√7 = (√36)(√7) = √(some number less than 280)
(B) 9√4 = (√81)(√4) = √(some number greater than 320)
(C) 7√6 = (√49)(√6) = √(some number less than 300)
(D) 6√8 = (√36)(√8) = √(some number less than 320)
(E) 8√5 = (√64)(√5) = √(320)

So, B must be the greatest

Cheers,
Brent
Brent Hanneson - Creator of GMATPrepNow.com
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by GMATGuruNY » Fri Feb 07, 2014 1:13 am
gmattesttaker2 wrote:
Which of the following is greatest?
(A) 6√7
(B) 9√4
(C) 7√6
(D) 6√8
(E) 8√5
An alternate approach is to SQUARE the answer choices:

(6√7)² = 36*7 = 252.
(9√4)² = 81*4 = 324.
(7√6)² = 49*6 = 294.
(6√8)² = 36*8 = 288.
(8√5)² = 64*5 = 320.

The greatest result is yielded by the option in red.

The correct answer is B.
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