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What is the value of x?

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by sanju09 » Fri Jan 30, 2009 3:39 am
What is the value of x?

1. (3/2) x + y = 3

2. (2/3) y + x = 2

ORIGINAL SOURCE OF THIS QUESTION:
https://www.west.net/~stewart/gmat/
The mind is everything. What you think you become. -Lord Buddha



Sanjeev K Saxena
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by shulapa » Fri Jan 30, 2009 7:11 am
This question can be answered In 10 seconds if you remember the law of equations (in order to solve N variables you need N equations), but more important the condition that every equation must be different than the others. In the question you see each statement has one equations, so automatically we can rule out A and B. We could have mistaken and gone with C, but closer inspection reveals that both of the equation are actually the same one.

Thus, IMO, E
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by ajmoney09 » Fri Jan 30, 2009 8:32 pm
Answer is E....

You need two SEPERATE equations to solve for a variable if you have two different variables....

So in statement one u have a equation and in the second you have another boom your done....No your not this is the GMAT trap....

The equations are the exact same just the 3/2 from the first statemnt is moved to the second statement to apply it to y...

Take statement one and solve for x...you will get statement 2...

this makes these two equations the SAME....

Look out for this you will see it on the GMAT....

they do this quite often.
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by krisraam » Fri Jan 30, 2009 9:12 pm
Both the equations are same

Answer is E

Thanks
Raama
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by sanju09 » Mon Feb 02, 2009 5:20 am
Good.

The correct response is (E). The two equations given are actually the same equation. (One way to confirm this is to multiply each term in the second equation by 3/2.) Given one linear equation in two variables, you cannot determine the value of one variable without knowing the value of the other. Thus, x has an infinite number of possible values.

ORIGINAL SOURCE OF THIS QUESTION:
https://www.west.net/~stewart/gmat/
The mind is everything. What you think you become. -Lord Buddha



Sanjeev K Saxena
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The Princeton Review - Manya Abroad
Lucknow-226001

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