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Katrina has a wheat business

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by jaymw » Tue Nov 30, 2010 8:42 pm
I didn't find this question here when I used the search function, so I thought I'd post it:

Katrina has a wheat business. She purchases wheat from a local wholesaler at a particular cost per pound. The price of the wheat at her stores is 3$ per pound. Her faulty spring balance reads 0.9 pounds for a pound. Also, in the festival season, she gives a 10% discount on the wheat. She found that she made neither a profit nor a loss in the festival season. At what price did Katrina purchase the wheat from the wholesaler?

(A) 2.43
(B) 2.5
(C) 2.7
(D) 3
(E) 3.3

I'm posting this because I disagree with the OA and explanation in the GMAT math bible...
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by kvcpk » Tue Nov 30, 2010 9:28 pm
jaymw wrote:I didn't find this question here when I used the search function, so I thought I'd post it:

Katrina has a wheat business. She purchases wheat from a local wholesaler at a particular cost per pound. The price of the wheat at her stores is 3$ per pound. Her faulty spring balance reads 0.9 pounds for a pound. Also, in the festival season, she gives a 10% discount on the wheat. She found that she made neither a profit nor a loss in the festival season. At what price did Katrina purchase the wheat from the wholesaler?

(A) 2.43
(B) 2.5
(C) 2.7
(D) 3
(E) 3.3

I'm posting this because I disagree with the OA and explanation in the GMAT math bible...
Is it A??

Used POE.

if the balance shows 0.9 pounds for 1 pound, Katrina should be in loss.
But, she is not in loss, that means the buying prie should be less than the selling price.
DE out.

she is selling at 10% discount.
which means selling price is 2.7
this cannot be buying price because it should still be less.
C out.

2.7 dollars per pound is the selling price.
2.43 dollars per 0.9 pounds

Hence she shold have bought the wheat at 2.43 dollars per pound.

Hope this helps!!
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by beat_gmat_09 » Tue Nov 30, 2010 9:37 pm
3$ per pound, discount 10%, selling price - 2.7$ per pound
Katrina's weight balance shows 0.9 instead of 1 pound, actually she should be in profit as 0.1 pound is saved, but she faces neither a loss neither profit. So price to sell = price to buy.
Price to sell = 2.7*0.9 for a pound = 2.43$
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by jaymw » Tue Nov 30, 2010 10:02 pm
Thanks! You both got the OA.

I'm still struggling with the following:

Katrina sells what she believes is 1 pound for 2.7$ during the festival season. Let's say she bought 9 pounds of wheat from the wholesaler. Strange as it sounds, with those 9 pounds she can sell 1pound ten times because of the skewed scales.

In the example, she bought 9 pounds at x$ from the wholesaler.
She sells 10 times what she believes is 1 pound, that means she gets 27$.

If she doesn't make a loss or a profit, her selling price equals her cost.

That translates to:

9x=27$
x=3$

What I am I missing here?
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by jaymw » Tue Nov 30, 2010 10:06 pm
Haha now that I read it again, I found my mistake. Misread the sentence "reads 0.9 pounds for a pound" as "a pound for 0.9 pounds"...
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