Unclear word problem

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Unclear word problem

by Mo2men » Tue Nov 29, 2016 4:15 am
A certain fruit stand sold a total of 76 oranges to 19 customers. How many of them bought only one orange?


(1) None of the customers bought more than 4 oranges.

(2) The difference between the number of oranges bought by any two customers is even.

Source: GMATclub tests

OA: D[/spoiler]
Source: — Data Sufficiency |

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by MartyMurray » Tue Nov 29, 2016 5:49 am
Statement 1: None of the customers bought more than 4 oranges.

The key thing to notice here is that 76 = 19 x 4.

So if 4 is the maximum anyone bought, then the only way that the total would be 76 is by all of them buying 4. If any bought fewer than 4, the total would be less than 76.

So none bought only 1.

Sufficient.

Statement 2: The difference between the number of oranges bought by any two customers is even.

To get the answer to this one you could start off by wrapping you mind around what is going on by using what we figured out from Statement 1, that they all bought 4. If they all bought 4, then the difference between the numbers of oranges bought by any two is 0, an even number.

So one possibility is that they all bought 4, and none bought 1.

Could some have bought 1?

If everyone were to have bought an odd number of oranges, the difference between any two numbers bought would be even. Odd - Odd = Even. Ok great.

So at first it seems that the numbers bought could be all even or all odd.

However, there are 19 people. 19 is odd, and the sum of an odd number of odd numbers is always odd. So there is no way that the sum of an odd number of odd numbers could be 76, an even number.

So everyone must have bought an even number of oranges, meaning nobody bought 1 orange.

Sufficient.

The correct answer is D.
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by GMATGuruNY » Tue Nov 29, 2016 7:13 am
Mo2men wrote:A certain fruit stand sold a total of 76 oranges to 19 customers. How many of them bought only one orange?


(1) None of the customers bought more than 4 oranges.

(2) The difference between the number of oranges bought by any two customers is even.
Statement 1:
Test the THRESHOLD.
Since no one may buy more than 4 oranges, the threshold here is 4.

Case 1: Each of the 19 customers buys exactly 4 oranges
Here, we get the following set:
{4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4}
Sum of the values = 19*4 = 76.
In Case 1, none of the customers buys exactly 1 orange.

Test whether Case 1 can be altered so that one of the customers buys exactly 1 orange.
Case 2:
{4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 1}
Sum of the values = (18*4) + 1 = 73.
The sum is too small.
For the sum to increase to 76, at least one of the first 18 values must increase beyond the threshold of 4.
Not viable.

Implication:
Only Case 1 is possible.
Thus, none of the customers buys exactly 1 orange.
SUFFICIENT.

Statement 2:
For the difference between any two values in the set to be even, all of the values must be even or all of the values must be odd.
Consider the following case:
{4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 7, 1}
Here, the difference between the two terms in red is odd, so the set is not viable.

The sum of 19 odd values will be odd.
Since it is not possible for 19 odd values to have a sum of 76, all of the values in the set cannot be odd.
Thus, all of the values in the set must be EVEN, with the result that none of the 19 customers buys exactly 1 orange.
SUFFICIENT.

The correct answer is D.
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by Jay@ManhattanReview » Wed Dec 14, 2016 5:17 am
Mo2men wrote:A certain fruit stand sold a total of 76 oranges to 19 customers. How many of them bought only one orange?


(1) None of the customers bought more than 4 oranges.

(2) The difference between the number of oranges bought by any two customers is even.

Source: GMATclub tests

OA: D[/spoiler]
Hi Mo2men,

As soon as I saw 76 and 19, it clicked that 76 is 4 times 19. Anyways, let's move on.

We need to deduce how many customer(s) bought one orange.

S1: # of oranges per customer < = 4.

Now since 76/19 = 4 and if we distribute an equal number of oranges = 4 (Max.) to each of the 19 customers, the total number of oranges = 76 would be exhausted. Thus each of the 19 customers bought exactly 4 oranges each, or none bought one, two, or even three oranges. Sufficient!

S2: It is very important to get out of the hangover of statement 1.

The statement, "The difference between the number of oranges bought by any two customers is even." implies that EITHER each of the 19 customers bought an even number of oranges OR each of the 19 customers bought an odd number of oranges since the difference of EVEN and EVEN = EVEN and ODD and ODD = EVEN.

We are concerned with an odd number of oranges (The questions wants us to tell the count of customers bought only one (ODD) number of oranges).

We know that the sum of an ODD number of ODD numbers would be an ODD number, we can conclude that none would have bought 1, 3, 5, ... number of oranges since the sum (total number of oranges) = 76 (an EVEN number)

=> None bought exactly one orange!

Hope this helps!

-Jay

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