|x-y|=?

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|x-y|=?

by VJesus12 » Wed Jul 04, 2018 2:27 am

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|x-y|=?

1) x and y are integers
2) xy=5

The OA is the option C.

I got that the correct answer here is the option E. Could anyone give me some help? Please. I need a clarification.
Source: — Data Sufficiency |

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by GMATGuruNY » Wed Jul 04, 2018 2:53 am

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VJesus12 wrote:|x-y|=?

1) x and y are integers
2) xy=5
Statement 1:
Clearly INSUFFICIENT.

Statement 2:
If x=5 and y=1, then |x-y| = |5-1| = 4.
If x=10 and y=0.5, then |x-y| = |10-0.5) = 9.5.
Since |x-y| can be different values, INSUFFICIENT.

Statements combined:
If x=5 and y=1, then |x-y| = |5-1| = 4.
If x=1 and y=5, then |x-y| = |1-5| = 4.
If x=-5 and y=-1, then |x-y| = |-5-(-1)| = 4.
If x=-1 and y=-5, then |x-y| = |-1-(-5)| = 4.
No other cases are possible.
In every case, |x-y| = 4.
SUFFICIENT.

The correct answer is C.
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by Vincen » Wed Jul 04, 2018 5:43 am

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Hello Vjesus12.

Let's take a look at your question.

We need to find the value of |x-y|.

First Statement
1) x and y are integers
Here x and y can be any integer, so |x-y| will have different values. So, it is not sufficient.

Second Statement
2) xy=5
Here, x and y can be any real value whose product is 5, that is to say, we have the possible couples (1,5), (25, 1/5), (125, 1/25), . . . . and again, |x-y| will have different values. So, it is not sufficient.

First Statement + Second Statement
1) x and y are integers
2) xy=5
Now, we have that x and y are integers and their product is equal to 5.

Therefore, we get the cases : (1,5), (-1,-5), (5,1) and (-5,-1). For each couple of values, we will get $$\left|x-y\right|=\left|1-5\right|=\left|-4\right|=4.$$ $$\left|x-y\right|=\left|-1-\left(-5\right)\right|=\left|4\right|=4.$$ $$\left|x-y\right|=\left|5-1\right|=\left|4\right|=4.$$ $$\left|x-y\right|=\left|-5-\left(-1\right)\right|=\left|-4\right|=4.$$ So, we get only one value for |x-y|.

This implies that both statements together are sufficient.

Hence, the correct answer is the option C.

I hope it helps.