Answer is E.
Its pretty clear that none of the alone statement in itself can prove this statement. The only option is left whether they together can prove this statement or not.
So for this, first factorize -1200 into 6 numbers:-
4 X 4 X 3 X 5 X 5 X (-1) = -1200
So, both together also fails to prove the statement. So answer should be E.
Let me know the correct answer given in key of the test.
DS : GMATPrep Question 1
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Source: Beat The GMAT — Data Sufficiency |
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codesnooker
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Just to summarize a bit more thoroughly why they're insufficient, even taken together:codesnooker wrote:Answer is E.
Its pretty clear that none of the alone statement in itself can prove this statement. The only option is left whether they together can prove this statement or not.
So for this, first factorize -1200 into 6 numbers:-
4 X 4 X 3 X 5 X 5 X (-1) = -1200
So, both together also fails to prove the statement. So answer should be E.
Let me know the correct answer given in key of the test.
When we combine the statements, we could choose the numbers that Code did:
4*4*3*5*5(-1). When we ask the original question "are there more negatives than positives" we get a "no" answer.
However, we could also choose the numbers:
4(-4)(-3)(-5)(-5)(-1). When we ask the original question "are there more negatives than positives" we get a "yes" answer.
Since we can get both a "yes" and a "no", the statements together are insufficient: choose (E).
Just as an aside, we could have picked much simpler numbers. Nowhere does it actually say that the members of the set are distinct, so we could have done less math by picking:
(1)(1)(1)(1)(1)(-1200) and (1)(-1)(-1)(-1)(-1)(-1200)
On the GMAT, less work is always better than more!
(Assuming you don't miss anything, of course
)
Stuart Kovinsky | Kaplan GMAT Faculty | Toronto
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