In the \(xy\)-coordinate plane, what are the \(x\)-coordinates of the four vertices of square \(JKMN?\)

This topic has expert replies
Legendary Member
Posts: 1622
Joined: Thu Mar 01, 2018 7:22 am
Followed by:2 members

Timer

00:00

Your Answer

A

B

C

D

E

Global Stats

In the \(xy\)-coordinate plane, what are the \(x\)-coordinates of the four vertices of square \(JKMN?\)

(1) \(J\) and \(M\) are on the \(x\)-axis, and \(K\) and \(N\) are on the \(y\)-axis.
(2) The center of the square is at the origin.

Answer: E

Source: Official Guide
Source: — Data Sufficiency |

GMAT/MBA Expert

User avatar
GMAT Instructor
Posts: 16207
Joined: Mon Dec 08, 2008 6:26 pm
Location: Vancouver, BC
Thanked: 5254 times
Followed by:1268 members
GMAT Score:770

Timer

00:00

Your Answer

A

B

C

D

E

Global Stats

Gmat_mission wrote:
Thu Nov 19, 2020 11:37 am
In the \(xy\)-coordinate plane, what are the \(x\)-coordinates of the four vertices of square \(JKMN?\)

(1) \(J\) and \(M\) are on the \(x\)-axis, and \(K\) and \(N\) are on the \(y\)-axis.
(2) The center of the square is at the origin.

Answer: E

Source: Official Guide
Target question: What are the x-coordinates of the four vertices of square JKMN ?

When I SCAN the two statements (always scan the statements before performing any calculations!), I see that neither statement provides any information about the size of the square.
So, I’m going to head straight to……

Statements 1 and 2 combined
There are infinitely many squares that satisfy BOTH statements. Here are two:
Image
Since the 4 vertices of the smaller square are different from the 4 vertices of the larger square, we can conclude that there is no way we can answer target question with certainty
So, the combined statements are NOT SUFFICIENT

Answer: E

Cheers,
Brent
Brent Hanneson - Creator of GMATPrepNow.com
Image