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Don't understand this problem (seems easy)

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Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts
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by H2O » Thu Jul 10, 2008 8:59 am
Hi all,

I encountered the following problem on the practice GMAT and for some reason can't figure out why they got the answer they did.

A certain library asseses fines for overdue books as follows. On the first day a book is overdue, the charge is $0.10. For each additional day that the book is overdue, the total fine is either increased by $0.30 or doubled, whichever results in a lesser amount. What is the total fine for a book on the fourth day it is overdue?

Seems easy, but I keep getting the wrong answer. Maybe I'm not reading it right.
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by punit.kaur.mba » Thu Jul 10, 2008 9:05 am
My answer is 0.7. Whats the OA?
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by H2O » Thu Jul 10, 2008 9:07 am
My answer was $0.90, but the correct answer is $0.70, what you got. Can you please explain?
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by punit.kaur.mba » Thu Jul 10, 2008 9:11 am
ok here you go:

1st day - 0.1
2nd day - either 0.4(0.1+0.3) or 0.2(0.1 x 2) . We choose the least so 0.2
3rd day - either 0.5(0.2 + 0.3) or 0.4(0.2 x 2). We choose 0.4
4th day - either 0.7(0.4 + 0.3) or 0.8(0.4 x 2). We choose 0.7

Ans is 0.7

Let me know if u have quest.
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by H2O » Thu Jul 10, 2008 9:36 am
Oh, I see, I was not reading the problem right. When it said "the total amount" I thought I had to add the amount from the previous day to the next day and double or add .30 to that number. This was confusing. Thank you for explaining.
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