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Cutting Edge Knives

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Cutting Edge Knives

by gmatassistance » Thu Sep 17, 2009 6:53 pm
Cutting Edge Knife Co. hired P salespeople, each of whom sold 200 knives. Each Salesperson then hired P more salespeople, each of whom also sold 200 knives each. What is the value of P?
i. the first P salespeople sold 1/9 of all the knives sold.
ii. 14,400 knives were sold

Please provide detailed explanation - thanks!
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Re: Cutting Edge Knives

by dtweah » Fri Sep 18, 2009 5:43 am
gmatassistance wrote:Cutting Edge Knife Co. hired P salespeople, each of whom sold 200 knives. Each Salesperson then hired P more salespeople, each of whom also sold 200 knives each. What is the value of P?
i. the first P salespeople sold 1/9 of all the knives sold.
ii. 14,400 knives were sold

Please provide detailed explanation - thanks!
1) Suff

200p/(200p^2+200p)=1/9


2 Suff.
200p^2+200p=14400

Choose D
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Re: Cutting Edge Knives

by heshamelaziry » Fri Sep 18, 2009 1:50 pm
dtweah wrote:
gmatassistance wrote:Cutting Edge Knife Co. hired P salespeople, each of whom sold 200 knives. Each Salesperson then hired P more salespeople, each of whom also sold 200 knives each. What is the value of P?
i. the first P salespeople sold 1/9 of all the knives sold.
ii. 14,400 knives were sold

Please provide detailed explanation - thanks!
1) Suff

200p/(200p^2+200p)=1/9


2 Suff.
200p^2+200p=14400

Choose D
Could you explain how you reached the solutions ? For example, what is P^2 ?
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by woo » Sat Sep 19, 2009 5:13 am
we know from condition 2 that

200p^2+200p-14400=0
p^2+p-72=0
(p-8)(p+9)=0
Therefore, p=8,-9
but p cannot be negative
thus, p=8 hence sufficient
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