Ratio Question

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jfranco23: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 75; Joined: Fri Jan 16, 2009 2:00 pm; Thanked: 1 times; GMAT Score:550

by jfranco23 » Tue Feb 17, 2009 5:33 am

A department manager distributed a number of pens, pencils and pads among the staff in the department, with each staff member receiving x pens, y pencils and z pads. How many staff memers were in the department?

1. The number of pens, pencils and pads that each staff member received were in the ratio 2:3:4, respectively

2. The manager distributed a total of 18 pens, 27 pencils and 36 pads

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Data Sufficiency | Tue Feb 17, 2009 5:33 am

scoobydooby: Legendary Member; Posts: 1035; Joined: Wed Aug 27, 2008 10:56 pmFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 104 times

by scoobydooby » Tue Feb 17, 2009 6:06 am

B?

stmnt 1: each member recd in the ration of 2:3:4.
this could work for any number of members. no of members can be 1,2,..anything. not sufficient

stmnt 2: 18 pens: 27 pencils: 36 pads
each member received the same ratio of pens, pencils, pads.
reducing 18:27:36 by highest common factor: 9, we get the no of staff as 9.
(as a check the ratio when reduced to lowest terms gives 2:3:4, which is the ratio of items each member gets, also confirmed by stmnt 1 above. statements never contradict each other, so we must be good)

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DanaJ: Site Admin; Posts: 2567; Joined: Thu Jan 01, 2009 10:05 amFollowed by: 550 members; Thanked: 712 times; GMAT Score:770

by DanaJ » Tue Feb 17, 2009 6:09 am

I say E. Each stmt is insufficient by itself, since in the first case we do not know anything except a ratio and in the second stmt we do not know anything about the ratio of the items (you could very well have 3 staff members receiving 6 pens, 9 pencils and 12 pads or just one staff member receiving all of the goods).
Taken together, you get the same as above. You can't tell if it's just one guy who got everything or if it's three or if it;s 6 guys. I'd go with E.

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scoobydooby: Legendary Member; Posts: 1035; Joined: Wed Aug 27, 2008 10:56 pmFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 104 times

by scoobydooby » Tue Feb 17, 2009 6:20 am

agree with danaj

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sanjay_dce: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 38; Joined: Tue Jan 27, 2009 10:24 am

by sanjay_dce » Tue Feb 17, 2009 10:17 am

DanaJ wrote:I say E. Each stmt is insufficient by itself, since in the first case we do not know anything except a ratio and in the second stmt we do not know anything about the ratio of the items (you could very well have 3 staff members receiving 6 pens, 9 pencils and 12 pads or just one staff member receiving all of the goods).
Taken together, you get the same as above. You can't tell if it's just one guy who got everything or if it's three or if it;s 6 guys. I'd go with E.

I would say C,
since the question stem says each staff member got x, y ,z articles it means each got x pencil , y eraser, z sharpner.
using both statement we can find out no of staff = 9 i guess OA would tell us the clear picture

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davidrobinson: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 2; Joined: Mon Feb 16, 2009 3:11 am

by davidrobinson » Tue Feb 17, 2009 12:14 pm

My vote is C as well.

If every person received x, y and z and we know the ratio and how many were given out in total, we can back into the headcount.

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x2suresh: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 258; Joined: Thu Aug 07, 2008 5:32 am; Thanked: 16 times

Re: Ratio Question

by x2suresh » Tue Feb 17, 2009 1:03 pm

jfranco23 wrote:A department manager distributed a number of pens, pencils and pads among the staff in the department, with each staff member receiving x pens, y pencils and z pads. How many staff memers were in the department?

1. The number of pens, pencils and pads that each staff member received were in the ratio 2:3:4, respectively

2. The manager distributed a total of 18 pens, 27 pencils and 36 pads

agree with E

clearly each statment not sufficient

combined

2:3:4 -->
2K , 3K, 4k --> pencils , papers and pads distributed.

say p persons.

p= 2k/x
we don't know the value of x and k

2k= 18 --> k=9

P = 2*9/x --> x can be 3 or 9

P= 6 or 2

not suffcient

E

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AJ2009: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 19; Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2009 9:00 am; Thanked: 1 times

by AJ2009 » Wed Feb 18, 2009 3:38 am

I go with E.

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