Thanks for bringing this up, Gaurav! This is a tricky statement, for sure, and because of that you'll see the GMAT feature this kind of setup a lot. I see it most frequently in percentage-based problems, such as:
Square A has a side of 1 and Square B has a side of 2. <Note, this question can be asked in two ways>
What percent greater is the area of Square B than the area of Square A?
Now, the area of square A is 1 and of square B is 4. But be careful - "greater than" in an equation means "in addition to" or "plus". So they're really asking:
Area of Square B = Area of Square A + X% (Area of Square A)
4 = 1 + 3(1)
so the area is 300% GREATER THAN the area of square A.
The area of Square B is what percent of the area of Square A?
Here they ask for the "percent of". 4 is 400% of 1, so the answer here is 400%.
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It's a subtle distinction but extremely important on GMAT questions. In its base form, "greater than" as an addition term is probably best exemplified in an age problem:
Ben is four years older than Jim
would equate to
B = 4 + J
Note the direct tie between words and mathematical operations. "Is" means "=". "Older than" means "In addition to" or "+".
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So...to answer your question, Gaurav - you're right. I'd take an intermediate step just to clarify, though:
The population of Town X is four times greater than the population of Town Y.
X = 4Y + Y
X = 5Y
Had they said: The population of Town X is four times THAT OF Town Y, then we don't have to include addition, and it's just X = 4Y. But that "greater than" begs for an addition problem.
Brian Galvin
GMAT Instructor
Chief Academic Officer
Veritas Prep
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