Overlapping sets question

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Overlapping sets question

by Mo2men » Mon Mar 27, 2017 3:45 pm
Are more than one half of the females at the company married with children?

(1) 51% of the workforce is female and married.
(2) 49% of the workforce is male, married and has children; the rest of the workforce are females and have children.

OA: C

Can the above you question solved by double matrix method?
Source: — Data Sufficiency |

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by GMATGuruNY » Mon Mar 27, 2017 6:24 pm
Mo2men wrote:Are more than one half of the females at the company married with children?

(1) 51% of the workforce is female and married.
(2) 49% of the workforce is male, married and has children; the rest of the workforce are females and have children.
Let the workforce = 100 people.

Statement 1:
Thus, 51 members of the workforce are married females.
No information about the number of females who have children.
INSUFFICIENT.

Statement 2:
The 100-member workforce is composed of the following:
49 married males with children.
51 females with children.
No information about the number of females who are married.
INSUFFICIENT.

Statements combined:
The 100-member workforce is composed of the following:
Statement 1: 51 married females.
Statement 2: 49 married males with children, 51 females with children.
Since the 100-member workforce is composed of 49 men and 51 women, the values in blue must represent the same 51 females.
Thus, all 51 females are married with children, and the answer to the questions stem is YES.
SUFFICIENT.
Can the above you question solved by double matrix method?
A matrix would be applicable if the problem were constrained to MALE OR FEMALE, MARRIED OR UNMARRIED.
Since the problem includes a third category -- WITH CHILDREN OR WITHOUT -- I don't recommend the use of a matrix.
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by [email protected] » Mon Mar 27, 2017 7:05 pm
Hi Mo2men,

This DS question is more of a 'logic' question than a 'math' question (as you have to do almost no math to get to the correct answer).

We're asked if MORE than one half of the FEMALES are MARRIED with CHILDREN. This is a YES/NO question.

1) 51% of the workforce is FEMALE and MARRIED.

From this Fact, we don't know how much of this 51% also has children.

IF... all of the 51% also have children, then the answer to the question is YES.
IF... none of the 51% also have children, then the answer to the question is NO.
Fact 1 is INSUFFICIENT.

2) 49% of the workforce is MALE, married and has children; the rest of the workforce are females and have children.

This Fact tells us that the remaining 51% of the workforce is FEMALE with CHILDREN, but we don't know how much of this 51% also is married.

IF... all of the 51% are also married, then the answer to the question is YES.
IF... none of the 51% are also married, then the answer to the question is NO.
Fact 2 is INSUFFICIENT.

Combined, we know...
51% of the workforce is FEMALE and MARRIED.
51% of the workforce is FEMALE with CHILDREN.
49% of the workforce is MALE....

Since 49% of the workforce involves a group that the question is NOT asking about (male), the remaining 51% must ALL be females, who are married and who have children. Thus, the answer to the question is YES.
Combined, SUFFICIENT.

Final Answer: C

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