OG2015 DS What is the value

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lionsshare: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 62; Joined: Wed Aug 09, 2017 3:54 pm

by lionsshare » Sat Sep 16, 2017 2:11 am

What is the value of |x| ?

(1) x = - |x|
(2) x^2 = 4

OA: B

Please help, Experts, what's the best approach to solving this problem. Thanks!

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Data Sufficiency | Sat Sep 16, 2017 2:11 am

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Jay@ManhattanReview: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 3008; Joined: Mon Aug 22, 2016 6:19 amFollowed by: 34 members; Location: Grand Central / New York; Thanked: 470 times

by Jay@ManhattanReview » Sat Sep 16, 2017 5:16 am

lionsshare wrote:What is the value of |x| ?

(1) x = - |x|
(2) x^2 = 4

OA: B

Please help, Experts, what's the best approach to solving this problem. Thanks!

Like this post

Jeff@TargetTestPrep: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 1462; Joined: Thu Apr 09, 2015 9:34 amFollowed by: 22 members; Location: New York, NY; Thanked: 39 times

by Jeff@TargetTestPrep » Tue Jul 17, 2018 3:46 pm

lionsshare wrote:What is the value of |x| ?

(1) x = - |x|
(2) x^2 = 4

We need to determine the absolute value of x.

Statement One Alone:

x = -|x|

If x = -|x|, then x must be negative or 0. For example, if x = -3, -3 = -|-3|. However, since we do not have an exact value for x, statement one is not sufficient. We can eliminate answer choices A and D.

Statement Two Alone:

x^2 = 4

We can simplify by taking the square root of both sides of the equation:

âˆšx^2 = âˆš4

|x| = 2

Since we have 2 as the value for |x|, this answers the question.

Answer: B

Jeffrey Miller
Head of GMAT Instruction
[email protected]

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