GMAT Official Guide 2019 A certain store will order 25

This topic has expert replies
Moderator
Posts: 7187
Joined: Thu Sep 07, 2017 4:43 pm
Followed by:23 members

Timer

00:00

Your Answer

A

B

C

D

E

Global Stats

A certain store will order 25 crates of apples. The apples will be of three different varieties-McIntosh, Rome, and Winesap-and each crate will contain apples of only one variety. If the store is to order more crates of Winesap than crates of McIntosh and more crates of Winesap than crates of Rome, what is the least possible number of crates of Winesap that the store will order?


A. 7

B. 8

C. 9

D. 10

E. 11

GMAT/MBA Expert

User avatar
GMAT Instructor
Posts: 3008
Joined: Mon Aug 22, 2016 6:19 am
Location: Grand Central / New York
Thanked: 470 times
Followed by:34 members

by Jay@ManhattanReview » Sun Jul 01, 2018 10:12 pm
BTGmoderatorDC wrote:A certain store will order 25 crates of apples. The apples will be of three different varieties-McIntosh, Rome, and Winesap-and each crate will contain apples of only one variety. If the store is to order more crates of Winesap than crates of McIntosh and more crates of Winesap than crates of Rome, what is the least possible number of crates of Winesap that the store will order?

A. 7

B. 8

C. 9

D. 10

E. 11
We have W + M + R = 25 such that W > M and W > R.

We have to minimize the value of W.

Given, W > M and W > R, we can maximize the values of M and R such that W is minimum.

Say M = R = x

Thus, from W + M + R = 25, we have W + x + x = 25

Had W and x were equal, W = x = 25/3 = 8.33

Since W and x are integers, and W > X, we can have W = 9, and x = 8.

The correct answer: C

Hope this helps!

-Jay
_________________
Manhattan Review GMAT Prep

Locations: Manhattan Review Madhapur | Hyderabad GMAT Prep | Bangalore GMAT Courses | Himayatnagar GRE Prep | and many more...

Schedule your free consultation with an experienced GMAT Prep Advisor! Click here.

Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 415
Joined: Thu Oct 15, 2009 11:52 am
Thanked: 27 times

by regor60 » Mon Jul 02, 2018 8:44 am
To minimize W we need to maximize M and R.

Since both M and R have to be less than W, minimize that difference to maximize W.

The minimum difference, since we're dealing with whole numbers, is 1.

So M = R = W-1

Adding M, R and W: W-1+W-1+W = 25 > 3W = 27 and W = C,9

GMAT/MBA Expert

User avatar
GMAT Instructor
Posts: 7247
Joined: Sat Apr 25, 2015 10:56 am
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Thanked: 43 times
Followed by:29 members

by Scott@TargetTestPrep » Wed Jul 04, 2018 6:09 pm
BTGmoderatorDC wrote:A certain store will order 25 crates of apples. The apples will be of three different varieties-McIntosh, Rome, and Winesap-and each crate will contain apples of only one variety. If the store is to order more crates of Winesap than crates of McIntosh and more crates of Winesap than crates of Rome, what is the least possible number of crates of Winesap that the store will order?


A. 7

B. 8

C. 9

D. 10

E. 11
On average, each variety of apple is approximately 25/3 ≈ 8 crates. So we can have 9 crates of Winesap and 8 crates of Rome and 8 crates of McIntosh, for a total of 25 crates. Since 9 is the closest number to the average, it's the least possible number of crates for the variety of apples - Winesap - that has the greatest number of crates.

Alternate Solution:

Let's try each answer choice, starting from the smallest.

Answer Choice A: 7 McIntosh crates

If there are 7 McIntosh crates, then there are 25 - 7 = 18 crates of Winesap and Rome crates. If there are 18 crates of Winesap and Rome crates combined, then either one of these crates has to be more than the number of McIntosh crates (which is 7). This is because, if both the number of Winesap and Rome crates are less than 7, then there can be at most 12 remaining crates, but we have 18.

Answer Choice B: 8 McIntosh crates

Similar to the above discussion, there are 25 - 8 = 17 crates of Winesap and Rome crates. Again, if one of these crates is less than 8, then the other one will definitely be greater than 8.

Answer Choice C: 9 McIntosh crates

In this case, there are 25 - 9 = 16 crates of Winesap and Rome crates. In this case, we observe that the store could have ordered 8 crates of the Winesap and Rome apples each, so it is possible for the store to have ordered 9 McIntosh crates. Since we are looking for the smallest value, this is the value we are looking for.

Answer: C

Scott Woodbury-Stewart
Founder and CEO
[email protected]

Image

See why Target Test Prep is rated 5 out of 5 stars on BEAT the GMAT. Read our reviews

ImageImage