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by beat_gmat_09 » Sat Dec 04, 2010 7:22 am

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Answers

A

B

C

D

E

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Difficulty—

Each of the cucumbers in 100 pounds of cucumbers is composed of 99% water, by weight. After some of the water evaporates, the cucumbers are now 98% water by weight. What is the new weight of the cucumbers, in pounds?

A) 2
B) 50
C) 92
D) 96
E) 98

Which method will you apply?
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by Rahul@gurome » Sat Dec 04, 2010 7:35 am
beat_gmat_09 wrote:Each of the cucumbers in 100 pounds of cucumbers is composed of 99% water, by weight. After some of the water evaporates, the cucumbers are now 98% water by weight. What is the new weight of the cucumbers, in pounds?

A) 2
B) 50
C) 92
D) 96
E) 98

Which method will you apply?
Observe that before and after evaporation the materials other than water remains same.

Before evaporation:
Weight of other material = 1% of 100 pounds = 1 pound

After evaporation:
Other material = 2% by weight
Now 2% weighs 1 pound => 100% weighs 50 pounds.

The correct answer is B.
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by beat_gmat_09 » Sat Dec 04, 2010 8:39 am
Rahul@gurome wrote:
beat_gmat_09 wrote:Each of the cucumbers in 100 pounds of cucumbers is composed of 99% water, by weight. After some of the water evaporates, the cucumbers are now 98% water by weight. What is the new weight of the cucumbers, in pounds?

A) 2
B) 50
C) 92
D) 96
E) 98

Which method will you apply?
Observe that before and after evaporation the materials other than water remains same.

Before evaporation:
Weight of other material = 1% of 100 pounds = 1 pound

After evaporation:
Other material = 2% by weight
Now 2% weighs 1 pound => 100% weighs 50 pounds.

The correct answer is B.
Thanks Rahul. Can you please explain how to setup a equation ?
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by ankurmit » Tue Dec 07, 2010 9:44 am
NICE quistion
--------
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by AndyB » Tue Dec 07, 2010 10:48 am
Hi Rahul,

Thanks for the explanation.But i have a doubt

Each of the cucumbers in 100 pounds of cucumbers is composed of 99% water, by weight. After some of the water evaporates, the cucumbers are now 98% water by weight. What is the new weight of the cucumbers, in pounds?


"Observe that before and after evaporation the materials other than water remains same".Could you please explain how did you come to this conclusion.

Cucumbers weigh 100 pounds --> 99% water
Cucumbers weigh ? pounds -->98% waterd

Can we think that the other material weight can still be 1% and water % as 98%.

Please correct me.

Regards,
Andy.
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by Rahul@gurome » Tue Dec 07, 2010 11:24 am
AndyB wrote:"Observe that before and after evaporation the materials other than water remains same".Could you please explain how did you come to this conclusion.
I assumed evaporation means only evaporation of water.
AndyB wrote: Cucumbers weigh 100 pounds --> 99% water
Cucumbers weigh ? pounds -->98% waterd

Can we think that the other material weight can still be 1% and water % as 98%.
No we can't. We don't the exact constituents of a cucumber. The only thing the question allows us to know is that cucumber contains some water. And we can assume only the water evaporates, other things remains constant. Thus if water is 98%, then the remaining 2% must be those other things.

And according to you: there is 1% other material and 98% water => Total (98 + 1)% = 99%! We are missing 1%, right?
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by AndyB » Sun Dec 19, 2010 7:19 am
Yeah Rahul..U are right..
Anyways sorry for the late reply, Took a break.
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by thebigkats » Wed Jan 05, 2011 11:22 am
Starting:
total wt.: 100lb
Water 99% = 99lb
Other 1% = 1lb

End state
total wt = X
water 98% = 90X/100
Other 2% = X*2/100 = 1lb (from above)
==> X = 50
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by GMATGuruNY » Wed Jan 05, 2011 1:22 pm
beat_gmat_09 wrote:Each of the cucumbers in 100 pounds of cucumbers is composed of 99% water, by weight. After some of the water evaporates, the cucumbers are now 98% water by weight. What is the new weight of the cucumbers, in pounds?

A) 2
B) 50
C) 92
D) 96
E) 98

Which method will you apply?
At the start:
1 pound cucumber, 99 pounds water

After the evaporation:
1 pound cucumber = 2% of the total weight

Now look at the answer choices. Only answer choice B works:
.02*50 = 1.

The correct answer is B.

The equation would look like this:
1 pound cucumber = 2% of the total weight
1 = .02x
x = 1/.02 = 100/2 = 50.
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by emalby » Sun Apr 10, 2011 2:03 am
You can also look at it this way:

x is the weight of the cucumber after water evaporation, i.e. with 98% water

x - 98% of x = 1 pound

x - 0.98x = 1

0.02x = 1

x = 1/0.02

x = 50
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by sushantgupta » Mon Jul 04, 2011 10:07 pm
Answer is B

total weight of water = 99 pounds
total weight of cucumber san water = 1 pound

After evoparation
let say total weight is x

So 2*x/100 = 1 => x = 50
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by tailoc » Wed Aug 24, 2011 1:34 am
My answer:

X is the weight of water that was evaporated

Before evaporation: 100 pounds of cucumbers ---- 99 pounds of water

After evaporation : 100-X pounds of cucumbers ---- 99-X pounds of water

So

(99-X)/(100-X)=0.98 <=> 1=0.02X => X=50 => new weight of cucumbers = 100 - 50 = 50
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by Rastis » Wed Nov 30, 2011 12:28 pm
Confused on how the question was answer :cry:
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by bijoyajj » Wed Nov 30, 2011 10:40 pm
beat_gmat_09 wrote:Each of the cucumbers in 100 pounds of cucumbers is composed of 99% water, by weight. After some of the water evaporates, the cucumbers are now 98% water by weight. What is the new weight of the cucumbers, in pounds?

A) 2
B) 50
C) 92
D) 96
E) 98

Which method will you apply?
99% water in 100 pounds means ==> 1 pound solid cucumber + 99 pound water
After evaporation, 1 pound solid cucumber remains intact and only water gets evaporated

S0 1 + 0.98x = x (water now forms 98% of total weight)
hence 0.02x = 1.. so x= 50 pounds
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by mjmehta81 » Thu Feb 16, 2012 1:41 am
Very good question:

0.02 x z = 1

Therefore z = 1/0.02 = 50.
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