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I think the answer should be C, please explain

Expert replies
Source: — Data Sufficiency |

by vivekchandrams » Sat Jun 29, 2013 11:33 pm
Hey mate,

To know whether (r^5)(S^3)(t^4) is negative, we need to know what kind of numbers 's' and 'r' are. 't' doesn't matter since it is to the power 4 and hence it is always positive.

Statement 1 says 'rt' is negative. It implies either 'r' or 't' is negative. As we don't know which one of them is negative and what kind of an integer 's' is, we can't decide upon the stem. Hence INSUFFICIENT

Statement 2 says s is negative. No clue on what 'r' & 't' are. Hence INSUFFICIENT.

Combining, we have rt is negative and s is negative.
If we assume r is negative, then the whole stem would turn positive as 's' is already negative.
If we assume 't' is negative, the stem would then be negative.

Hence, INSUFFICIENT.

IMO E
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by GMATGuruNY » Sun Jun 30, 2013 2:33 am
[email protected] wrote:If r,s, and t are non zero integers, is (r^5)(S^3)(t^4) negative

1) rt is negative
2) s is negative
The following combinations satisfy both statements.

Case 1: r=1, s=-1, t=-1
Here, r�s³t� = 1�(-1)³(-1)� = (1)(-1)(1) = -1.
In this case, r�s³t� < 0.

Case 2: r=-1, s=-1, t=1
Here, r�s³t� = (-1)�(-1)³(1)� = (-1)(-1)(1) = 1.
In this case, r�s³t� > 0.

Since the first case r�s³t� < 0, and in the second case r�s³t� > 0, the two statements combined are INSUFFICIENT.

The correct answer is E.
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