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Points (a, b) and (c, d) lie on line L in the coordinate

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by BTGmoderatorDC » Sat Mar 30, 2019 7:23 am

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Points (a, b) and (c, d) lie on line L in the coordinate plane. Does point (3, 3) also lie on line L?

(1) Line L passes through the point of origin.
(2) b - d = a - c.

OA C

Source: Veritas Prep
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Source: — Data Sufficiency |

by Ian Stewart » Sun Mar 31, 2019 9:00 am
When you subtract y-coordinates of two points, you're just finding the distance between them purely in the vertical direction. That's sometimes called the "rise". Similarly when you subtract x-coordinates of two points, you're finding the purely horizontal distance between them, sometimes called the "run". So Statement 2 just tells us "rise = run", or dividing on both sides, "rise/run = 1", so it tells us the slope of the line is 1. That's not sufficient to answer the question, because we have no idea where the line is, but using Statement 1 along with Statement 2, we know exactly what line we're dealing with, so of course we can answer any question about it.
For online GMAT math tutoring, or to buy my higher-level Quant books and problem sets, contact me at ianstewartgmat at gmail.com

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