Marcia's Bucket..still dont get it!

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Marcia's Bucket..still dont get it!

by eloka » Wed Jun 02, 2010 8:38 pm
Marcia's bucket can hold a maximum of how many liters of water?

1) The bucket currently contains 9 liters of water

2) If 3 litters of water are added to the bucket when it is half full of water, the amount of water in the bucket will increase by 1/3.


so...

1) Not Unique

Because the volume of water is 9 litters, meanwhile, we still dont know the capacity of the bucket. 9 litters can reach up to the buckets edge, or 9 litters is a half volume of bucket.

2) Ok..seriously...where did the 4/3 came from? I went through the OG explanation..and all i can think is which one comes first egg or chicken?

"If 3 litters of water are added to the bucket when it is half full of water"
------> translate ----> 3 + 1/2(V)

"the amount of water in the bucket will increase by 1/3"
-------------> translate--------> does it mean, (3 +1/2(v)) +2/3 = 1/3 +2/3 ????

Frustrated to the max...
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by liferocks » Wed Jun 02, 2010 8:50 pm
from the first statement clearly we cannot conclude.
From second statement ,
let x be the amount of water when it is half full
the amount of water in the bucket will increase by 1/3 'of its original volume' when 3 litters is added

so x/3=3 or x=9 hence capacity is 2x=18L
Ans option B
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by tpr-becky » Thu Jun 03, 2010 12:10 am
you clearly understand that stmt 1 isn't sufficient.

if you put stmt 2 into an equation word for word it may help you. let M be max capacity.

"if 3L of water are added" - can be reduced to 3+. When the bucket is 1/2 full can be restated as 1/2M. "then the amount of water will" can be restated as =. "increased by 1/3" implies by the amount in the bucket plus 1/3 of what was in the bucket before or 1/3(1/2)(M)+1/2M.

Therefore the new equation is 3+1/2(m)=1/2(M) + 1/3(1/2)(M)

You don't even have to solve the equation - any statement you can reduce to one variable is solveable on the GMAT so B is the correct answer.
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