[email protected] wrote:If y
> 0, what is the value of x ?
(1) |x - 3|
> y
(2) |x - 3|
< -y
Target question:
What is the value of x ?
Given:
y > 0
Statement 1: |x - 3|
> y
There are many values of x and y that meet this condition. Here are two:
Case a: y = 1 and x = 5 (since |5 - 3|
> 1). In this case,
x = 5
Case b: y = 1 and x = 6 (since |6 - 3|
> 1). In this case,
x = 6
Since we cannot answer the
target question with certainty, statement 1 is NOT SUFFICIENT
Statement 2: |x - 3|
< -y
IMPORTANT: Since it's a given that
y > 0 (y is greater than or equal to zero), we can conclude that
-y is less than or equal to zero. In other words,
-y is equal to either zero or some negative value
Let's examine the possibility that
-y equals some negative value: This would mean that |x - 3|
< some negative value. This is impossible since the absolute value of anything is always be greater than or equal to zero. So, it would be impossible for
-y to equal some negative value.
This means that
-y MUST equal
0.
This tells us that |x - 3|
< 0
Since |x - 3| cannot be less than zero, it must be true that |x - 3| =
0, in which case
x = 3
Since we can answer the
target question with certainty, statement 2 is SUFFICIENT
Answer =
B
Cheers,
Brent
Brent Hanneson - Creator of GMATPrepNow.com
