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inequality (urgent)

Expert replies
Source: — Problem Solving |

by bluementor » Fri Feb 27, 2009 3:57 am
(X-5) ^ 2 < |X-1| , x is an integer

If x = 2, the inequality will not hold. Therefore choices A, D and E are out.
If x = 0, the inequality will not hold. Therefore choice B is out.

Choose C.

-BM-
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by mjjking » Fri Feb 27, 2009 3:58 am
X>5
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by GID09 » Fri Feb 27, 2009 10:36 am
If X>5..say X=10 .....5^2 <9 ....it doesn't hold as well. I am not sure how to pursue. Anybody?
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Re: inequality (urgent)

by marcusking » Fri Feb 27, 2009 11:14 am
mariah wrote:X- integer, if (X-5) ^ 2 < the absolute value of X-1

than x must be


1)X<5
2)X<1
3)X>5
4)X>1
5)X>O
Not sure if there is a good answer

Let's try every answer
A.) -5 < 5 so (-5-5)^2 = 100 < 5-1 false
B.) use the same thing as A (-5) false
C.) 10 > 5 so (10-5)^ = 15 < 10-1 false
D.) use the same as C (10) false
E.) use the same as C & D (10) false.

None are always true. Where is this question from?
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by krisraam » Fri Feb 27, 2009 1:43 pm
The only values that satisfy the inequation are

3<x<8

Thanks
raama
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Re: inequality (urgent)

by Ian Stewart » Fri Feb 27, 2009 1:44 pm
marcusking wrote: None are always true.
But the question doesn't ask 'which of the following is always true?' It asks 'which of the following must be true?' There's quite a difference, and this is the reason why you cannot simply plug in different values of x into each inequality. To illustrate, consider the following question:

If x = 1, what must be true?
A) x < 1
B) x < 0
C) x = 5
D) -1 < x < 1
E) x < 1000

That's a perfectly valid question, and the answer is E; if x is equal to 1, then it certainly must be true that x is less than 1000. It doesn't matter that there are numbers less than 1000 which cannot be equal to x.

So, in the question above, we aren't looking for an inequality that describes every possible solution for x; we're only looking for an inequality which contains every possible solution for x, perhaps along with some values that are not solutions for x.

To find the solutions to the inequality, I graphed y = |x-1| and y = (x-5)^2 to see that the only possible solutions for x are close to the value x=5. Since x is an integer, we can find all possible values: x = 4, 5, 6, 7. It's still a badly designed question, because the problem now is that there are then two correct answers - D) and E) - since if x is one of the values 4, 5, 6 or 7, it clearly must be true that x > 1, and also that x > 0.
For online GMAT math tutoring, or to buy my higher-level Quant books and problem sets, contact me at ianstewartgmat at gmail.com

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