Question on solution

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Question on solution

by OneTwoThreeFour » Fri Mar 11, 2011 11:39 am
From OG pg. 331 #126

If ° represents one of the operations +, -, and X,
is k ° ( l+ m) = (k °l ) + (k ° m) for all numbers k, l,
and m ?
(1) k ° 1 is not equal to 1 ° k for some numbers k.
(2) ° represents subtraction.

Answer is D


My question (more spoilers):
Given statements 1 &2, I understand ° must be "-". This also means that,

k-l-m= k-l + k - m
k-l-m= 2k - l - m

If k =0, then the equation above is certainly true; but, k can be any number. So, shouldn't the answer be E instead?
Thanks!
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by Stuart@KaplanGMAT » Fri Mar 11, 2011 12:05 pm
OneTwoThreeFour wrote:From OG pg. 331 #126

If ° represents one of the operations +, -, and X,
is k ° ( l+ m) = (k °l ) + (k ° m) for all numbers k, l,
and m ?
(1) k ° 1 is not equal to 1 ° k for some numbers k.
(2) ° represents subtraction.

Answer is D


My question (more spoilers):
Given statements 1 &2, I understand ° must be "-". This also means that,

k-l-m= k-l + k - m
k-l-m= 2k - l - m

If k =0, then the equation above is certainly true; but, k can be any number. So, shouldn't the answer be E instead?
Thanks!
Hi,

you're ignoring the part of the question stem that asks whether the equation holds true "for all numbers k, l, and m".

If we know that the operation in question is subtraction, then the answer is definitely NO to whether the equation holds true for ALL values of k.
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by OneTwoThreeFour » Fri Mar 11, 2011 6:34 pm
Thanks again Stuart! Sometimes when I do a quant question, I tend to read the question too fast and ignore what the question is actually asking.