VJesus12 wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 10, 2021 8:34 am

Six different companies are each donating a certain amount of money to a specific charity. Each company is donating a different amount of money, and the total amount donated by the six companies is \(\$58,000.\) Did at least one of the companies donate less than \(\$3000?\)

(1) The company that donated the most gave \($38,000.\)

(2) The company that donated the second least gave \(\$4000.\)

Answer: E

Source: Veritas Prep

Target question: Did at least one of companies donate less than $3000?

Statement 1: The company that donated the most gave $38,000
This means the other 5 companies donated a TOTAL of $20,000
Does this help us answer our target question? No.
Consider these 2 conflicting cases:
Case a: the donations are: 2999, 4000, 4001, 4250, 4750, 38,000 in which case at least one company donated less than $3000
Case b: the donations are: 3500, 4000, 4100, 4150, 4250, 38,000 in which case zero companies donated less than $3000
Since we cannot answer the target question with certainty, statement 1 is NOT SUFFICIENT

IMPORTANT: Notice that, for both cases, I chose values that also satisfy statement 2.

So, we now know that statement 2 is NOT SUFFICIENT

And we know that the combined statements are NOT SUFFICIENT

Answer: E

Cheers,
Brent