GMAT Prep DS (Inequality)

Stmt one just mentions that X < 8/9. It could be a range of values below 8/9. It does not give us one definite value for X

Stmt 2 does the exact same thing for Y.

Both stmts together also don't help in determining a definite value for X or Y. Hence E is the correct answer.

Hope this helps.

sangeethai wrote:Stmt one just mentions that X < 8/9. It could be a range of values below 8/9. It does not give us one definite value for X

Stmt 2 does the exact same thing for Y.

Both stmts together also don't help in determining a definite value for X or Y. Hence E is the correct answer.

Hope this helps.

It's a little more complicated that this explanation. The problem is that the range of answers provided include values both less than and greater than 1.

(1) x < 8/9

no info about y, insuff.

(2) y < 1/8

no info about x, insuff.

To test them together, let's get a common denominator:

(1) x < 64/72
(2) y < 9/72

so, if we add both sides, we get:

x + y < 73/72

which means that x+y could be less than 1, equal to 1 or greater than 1: insufficient.

Thanks for the explanation Stuart. As I was typing my take on the question, I did think that my explanation was too simple for a DS question. It's good to have someone around to give right directions.

Thanks Stuart.


Komal