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The main ingredient in a certain prescription drug capsule costs $500 per kilogram. If each capsule...

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The main ingredient in a certain prescription drug capsule costs $500 per kilogram. If each capsule...

by BTGmoderatorLU » Sat Jan 25, 2020 11:58 am
Source: GMAT Prep

The main ingredient in a certain prescription drug capsule costs $500 per kilogram. If each capsule contains 600 milligrams of ingredient, what is the cost of the ingredient in a capsule? (1 kilogram = 10^6 milligrams)

A. $0.30
B. $0.83
C. $1.20
D. $3.00
E. $3.33

The OA is A
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Re: The main ingredient in a certain prescription drug capsule costs $500 per kilogram. If each capsule...

by Gene@KaplanGMAT » Sat Jan 25, 2020 8:59 pm
600 milligrams / 1 kilogram = 600 / 1000000 = 6/10000 = .0006

And .0006 x $500 = $0.30, which is answer choice (A).

Or you could set up a proportion:
$500/1000000 = $x / 600
300000 = 1000000x
3 = 10x
3/10 = x, which is .3, or $0.30

Pro-Tip: Because of the number of 0's (decimal places) involved, it means there is a high probability of a trap answer that is just 1 decimal place away from the right answer. Here, it's answer choices (A) and (D) that are 1 decimal place away from each other. So you could try plugging one of those ($0.30 or $3.00) into the parameters of the problem....if it satisfies all the conditions of the problem, then it's the answer! And if not, then pick the other one!
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Re: The main ingredient in a certain prescription drug capsule costs $500 per kilogram. If each capsule...

by Scott@TargetTestPrep » Sun Feb 02, 2020 5:14 am
BTGmoderatorLU wrote: ↑
Sat Jan 25, 2020 11:58 am
 Source: GMAT Prep

The main ingredient in a certain prescription drug capsule costs $500 per kilogram. If each capsule contains 600 milligrams of ingredient, what is the cost of the ingredient in a capsule? (1 kilogram = 10^6 milligrams)

A. $0.30
B. $0.83
C. $1.20
D. $3.00
E. $3.33

The OA is A
We can use a proportion to solve this problem. Letting x be the cost, in dollars, per 600-mg capsule, we have:

$500/1 kg = $x/600 mg

Before we can cross multiply, we need the denominators to have the same units. Since we are given 1 kg = 10^6 mg, we have:

$500/10^6 mg = x/600 mg

500/10^6 = x/600

(10^6)(x) = 500(600)

1,000,000(x) = 300,000

10x = 3

x = 0.3

Thus, the cost is $0.30 per capsule.

Answer: A

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