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Currency problem - GMAT Prep

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by rahulvsd » Thu May 03, 2012 10:04 am
If 175 billion French Francs is equivalent to 35 billion United States dollars, which of the following expressions represents the number of USD equivalent to French Francs?

A. f - 140
B. 5f
C. 7f
D. f/5
E. f/7

[spoiler]OA: D. [/spoiler]
Last edited by rahulvsd on Fri May 04, 2012 9:24 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Source: — Problem Solving |

by GMATGuruNY » Thu May 03, 2012 10:52 am
rahulvsd wrote:If 175 billion French Francs is equivalent to 35 billion United States dollars, which of the following expressions represents the number of USD equivalent to French Francs?

A. f - 140
B. 5f
C. 7f
D. f/5
E. f/7

[spoiler]OA: B. [/spoiler]
175 billion French Francs is equivalent to 35 billion United States dollars.
175f = 35d

The problem asks for the number of USD equivalent to French Francs.
In other words:
How many US dollars are EQUAL IN VALUE to 1 French Franc?

Since 175f = 35d, f = (35/175)d = (1/5)d.
Last edited by GMATGuruNY on Fri May 04, 2012 12:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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by rahulvsd » Fri May 04, 2012 9:25 am
HI Mitch,

I got the same answer as you (B). But GMAT Prep says its D (f/5). This is a question from the extra questions package I purchased for $24
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by Bill@VeritasPrep » Fri May 04, 2012 9:34 am
If 175 billion francs are equal to 35 billion dollars, then clearly each franc is only worth a fraction of a dollar.
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by rahulvsd » Fri May 04, 2012 9:46 am
Bill,

Is there a mistake in the official source? How do we report this to the GMAC?
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by Bill@VeritasPrep » Fri May 04, 2012 11:40 am
No, it's correct. It's the wording that's weird:

"...the number of USD equivalent to French Francs?"

In other words, how do we get from a certain number of francs to the equivalent number of dollars? Based on the numbers provided, we know that 175 billion francs are equivalent to 35 billion dollars. Thus, we can see that to go from 175 billion francs to 35 billion dollars, we must divide by 5, and from that we can determine dividing the number of francs (f) by 5 gives us the equivalent number of dollars.
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by GMATGuruNY » Fri May 04, 2012 12:39 pm
rahulvsd wrote:HI Mitch,

I got the same answer as you (B). But GMAT Prep says its D (f/5). This is a question from the extra questions package I purchased for $24
I've amended my post above. USD equilavalent to French Francs is the number of US dollars that is EQUAL IN VALUE to French Francs.
In other words, the EXCHANGE RATE: the number of US dollars that would be given in exchange for each French Franc.
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I have worked with students based in the US, Australia, Taiwan, China, Tajikistan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia -- a long list of countries.
My students have been admitted to HBS, CBS, Tuck, Yale, Stern, Fuqua -- a long list of top programs.

As a tutor, I don't simply teach you how I would approach problems.
I unlock the best way for YOU to solve problems.

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by tomada » Fri May 04, 2012 1:32 pm
Nothing is more fun than trying to solve an ambiguously worded problem.
I'm really old, but I'll never be too old to become more educated.
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by Bill@VeritasPrep » Sun May 06, 2012 1:22 pm
tomada wrote:Nothing is more fun than trying to solve an ambiguously worded problem.
It's a good example of why we want to use the answer choices to guide our process.
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by redng » Tue May 08, 2012 8:19 pm
175/35 = f/d
5 = f/d
5d = f
d = f/5

D
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by Jeff@TargetTestPrep » Mon Dec 11, 2017 7:05 am
rahulvsd wrote:If 175 billion French Francs is equivalent to 35 billion United States dollars, which of the following expressions represents the number of USD equivalent to French Francs?

A. f - 140
B. 5f
C. 7f
D. f/5
E. f/7
We are given that 175 billion French francs = 35 billion United States dollars. We need to convert f francs to dollars. We can let x be the number of dollar that is equivalent to f francs and solve this problem using a proportion.

(175 billion)/(35 billion) = f/x

175/35 = f/x

175x = 35f

x = 35f/175

x = f/5

Answer: D

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by GMATWisdom » Mon Dec 11, 2017 8:32 am
rahulvsd wrote:If 175 billion French Francs is equivalent to 35 billion United States dollars, which of the following expressions represents the number of USD equivalent to French Francs?

A. f - 140
B. 5f
C. 7f
D. f/5
E. f/7

[spoiler]OA: D. [/spoiler]
clearly the weightage of Dollar is 5 times that of Franc
which means one DOLLAR is equal to 5 Franc
in other words the number of DOLLARS you would get against Franc would 1/5 the number of Francs
if "f" is the number of Francs then equilent number of Dollars would be " f/5 "
Hence D is the correct option.
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