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Problem in understanding wordings

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Problem in understanding wordings

by sgnikc45 » Sat Feb 08, 2014 6:36 am

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I am facing a problem while understanding the wordings on some problems.

1.A question has a statement as follows

Quote:
The retailer has less than twice as many radios as clocks in inventory


I translated this equation to r<c/2 but the solution given in the book translated this statement to r<2c. I realize that my translation is wrong since it does not help in arriving at a conclusion. I am a non native English speaker but I do have a strong control over the English language. Is the translation given in the solution natural for native speakers?

2. I also had a problem understanding the following question from the OG 13 for FDP. (Page 184, problem 226)

Quote:
A straight pipe 1 yard in length was marked off in fourths and also in thirds


There are so many different interpretations of the above statement.
A. The pipe was only marked off twice, once in fourths and then in thirds starting from the beginning of the pipe.
B. The pipe was marked off in thirds and fourths in alternates
C. The pipe was only marked off twice, once in fourths and once in thirds starting from the end of the pipe.

I am forced to skip such questions because I don't understand them.
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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Sat Feb 08, 2014 9:03 am
I admit that I always need to read sentences with "twice as many X as Y" a few times just to get it straight in my head. Then, when we add "less than" to the mix, things get even more confusing.
The retailer has less than twice as many radios as clocks in inventory
If you're having problems with this one, I suggest you ignore certain parts and then gradually consider each on its own. Here's what I mean:

The retailer has twice as many radios . . .
So, the number of radios is greater than something.
In fact, the number of radios is twice some other number.
So, # of radios = 2(something)

The retailer has twice as many radios as clocks
So, # of radios = 2(# of clocks)

The retailer has less than twice as many radios as clocks in inventory
So, # of radios < 2(# of clocks)

Now replace with variables to get: r < 2c
Quote:
A straight pipe 1 yard in length was marked off in fourths and also in thirds
Let's just consider a 1-yard pipe marked off in fourths.
To mark off the pipe in fourths, we must place a mark at 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4

Let's consider your suggestion: C. The pipe was only marked off twice, once in fourths and once in thirds starting from the end of the pipe
If we only mark the the pipe at 1/4, then we haven't marked off the pipe in fourths; we have marked it off in one-fourth and three-fourths.

Likewise, if I cut a cake into sixths, I am cutting the cake so that all of the pieces are 1/6 of the cake.

I hope that helps.

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Brent
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by sgnikc45 » Sat Feb 08, 2014 10:23 am
Brent,

Thanks for the prompt response. Your post makes things pretty simple :)

For problems of type 1, I should first get the relationship between the two variables and then apply the relational operator after the variable that is immediately after the operator in the question. Is this a good way to remember this concept?

For questions of type 2, I understood the part about cutting the pipe in fourths but I still don't understand what to do with the thirds. How do you know how many fourths to mark before marking the pipe into thirds or do you first mark the pipe into fourths and then mark it in thirds. I also did not understand how did you decide to mark the pipe at 1/2 and 3/4..Pretty confusing concept.
Last edited by sgnikc45 on Sat Feb 08, 2014 10:39 am, edited 2 times in total.
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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Sat Feb 08, 2014 10:28 am
sgnikc45 wrote: For problems of type 1, I should first get the relationship between the two variables and then apply the relational operator after the variable that is immediately after the operator in the question. Is this a good way to remember this concept?
I think it will help.
sgnikc45 wrote: For questions of type 2, I understood the part about cutting the pipe in fourths but I still don't understand what to do with the thirds. How do you know how many fourths to mark before cutting the pipe into thirds or do you first mark the pipe into fourths and then mark it in thirds. Pretty confusing concept..
I see what you're saying.
Keep in mind that we're just placing marks on the pipe (not cutting it). So, just treat the two directions independently.
Think of it as "A straight pipe 1 yard in length was marked off in fourths, and the same pipe is also marked off in thirds"

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by sgnikc45 » Sat Feb 08, 2014 10:41 am
I think I edited my post while you were replying to it.
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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Sat Feb 08, 2014 11:04 am
sgnikc45 wrote:I also did not understand how did you decide to mark the pipe at 1/2 and 3/4..Pretty confusing concept.

"A straight pipe 1 yard in length was marked off in fourths, and the same pipe is also marked off in thirds"


Let's treat the directions separately.

A straight pipe 1 yard in length was marked off in fourths,...
So, starting from 1 end, we place marks at 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4
We have now divided the pipe into regions that are one fourth of one yard in length.

the same straight pipe 1 yard in length was marked off in thirds,...
So, starting from 1 end, we place marks at 1/3 and 2/3
We have now divided the pipe into regions that are one third of one yard in length.

We get something like this:
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by sgnikc45 » Sun Feb 09, 2014 10:30 am
That makes complete sense. Thanks a lot for the diagram.

Mark off in fourths in the first iteration and then mark off in thirds in the second iteration. Also, you made markings at 1/4, then at 1/4 + 1/4 = 1/2 and then at 1/2 + 1/4 i.e 3/4. The same kind of calculations were used to mark the pipe in thirds.

Have I got this right? :)
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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Sun Feb 09, 2014 10:31 am
Exactly

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Re: Problem in understanding wordings

by Daksh Gargas » Mon Aug 17, 2020 3:30 am
The retailer has twice as many radios as clocks:
I think this is how you can rephrase it:

The retailer has twice the number of clocks as (the number of) radios

(#clocks) x 2 = (#radios)
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