5 power k

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by Rahul@gurome » Sat Sep 11, 2010 8:53 am
sairamGmat wrote:. Is 5^k less than 1,000 ?
(1) 5^ (k-1) >3000
(2) 5^(k-1) = 5^k - 500

Official Answer is B

Can any one explain why is this so?
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by gmat1011 » Sat Sep 11, 2010 10:06 am
In stem 1 if 5 to the power k >15000 then doesnt it imply that 5^k is certainly NOT less than 1,000 (its a number in excess of 15,000) --- so it is sufficient to answer the question and so D?

But if thats the case stem 1 and stem 2 would be providing different answers with respect to the possible value of 5^k (GMAT questions do not have contradictory stems)...

But 1 does look sufficient on its terms to me. Rahul@gurome can you please explain? Thanks for your time.

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by Rahul@gurome » Sat Sep 11, 2010 8:48 pm
gmat1011 wrote:In stem 1 if 5 to the power k >15000 then doesnt it imply that 5^k is certainly NOT less than 1,000 (its a number in excess of 15,000) --- so it is sufficient to answer the question and so D?

But if thats the case stem 1 and stem 2 would be providing different answers with respect to the possible value of 5^k (GMAT questions do not have contradictory stems)...

But 1 does look sufficient on its terms to me. Rahul@gurome can you please explain? Thanks for your time.
5^k > 15,000 or 15,000 < 5^k only gives us the that 5^k cannot exceed 15,000 but can we not say that 5^k < ___. So it only gives us the upper range not the lower one. 15,000 < 5^k < ___________ How can we fill in this blank?

Does this help?
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by gmat1011 » Sat Sep 11, 2010 11:39 pm
5^k > 15,000 or 15,000 < 5^k I thought means 5^k is a value greater than 15000 --- 15k is like a 'floor' value the value of 5^k cannot hit (I learned it at school with the teacher pointing out that the greater value points the 'beak' at the lower value!)

5^k < 15,000 or 15,000 > 5^k on the other hand would mean 5^k is less than 15000, i.e., 15000 is a 'ceiling' on the value

15,000 < 5^k < ___________ --- would mean 5^k lies in a certain positive value range


Even though the precise value of 5^k is not known - what is known for sure is that it is a value in excess of 15,000 => it can certainly not be less than 1000, what ever it is... and that makes it sufficient to answer the question asked: Is 5^k less than 1,000 ?

Do you always need a precise value on GMAT DS to conclude sufficiency --- this would be a good practical point to note if thats the case... but on its terms stem 1 seems to provide what one needs?

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by watchout4me » Sun Sep 12, 2010 3:11 am
To me, statement 1 is sufficient.

Rahul_gurome,
If 5 ^ k > 15,000, then can't we conclusively say 5 ^ k is not less than 1000? The question just says 'Is 5 ^ k < 1000?' . We can answer 'No' using statement 1 and hence statement 1 is sufficient.
I do not understand your explanation. Can you elaborate and let me know where I am making a mistake, if any?

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by kvcpk » Sun Sep 12, 2010 3:57 am
Rahul@gurome wrote: 5^k > 15,000 or 15,000 < 5^k only gives us the that 5^k cannot exceed 15,000 but can we not say that 5^k < ___. So it only gives us the upper range not the lower one. 15,000 < 5^k < ___________ How can we fill in this blank?

Does this help?
Hi Rahul,

You are missing something.
5^k>15000 means that 5^k>1000
We dont need to check again what 5^k is less than.
it might be like this: 15000<5^k<25000
But we are really not concerned with the upper limit.
Lower limit is 15000 which is greater than 1000.

You just got confused for once I believe.I know your credibility on this forum though.
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by kvcpk » Sun Sep 12, 2010 3:59 am
I think stmt1 should be 5^(k+1)>3000 instead of 5^(k-1)>3000
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by Rahul@gurome » Sun Sep 12, 2010 4:02 am
kvcpk wrote:
Hi Rahul,
You are missing something.
5^k>15000 means that 5^k>1000
We dont need to check again what 5^k is less than.
it might be like this: 15000<5^k<25000
But we are really not concerned with the upper limit.
Lower limit is 15000 which is greater than 1000.

You just got confused for once I believe.I know your credibility on this forum though.
You are right, (1) is SUFFICIENT here. Thanks for pointing that out!
The correct answer is (D) here.
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