sanju09 wrote:Is p q a prime number?

(1) p is a prime number.

(2) q is a fraction.

well, what do u mean by p q, it is a little ambiguous, the way 1) and 2) are

is it p+q or p*q or something else?

ajith wrote:

sanju09 wrote:Is p q a prime number?

(1) p is a prime number.

(2) q is a fraction.

well, what do u mean by p q, it is a little ambiguous, the way 1) and 2) are

is it p+q or p*q or something else?

Not a great doubt, how do we take p q as, by the way?

sanju09 wrote:
Not a great doubt, how do we take p q as, by the way?

well, it depends, if it is 7 9 it doesnt make much sense unless it is treated as 79
if it is 7 1/2 it can either be 7&1/2 or 7*1/2 hence the doubt.

Not a great clarification either (tit for tat)

ajith wrote:

sanju09 wrote:
Not a great doubt, how do we take p q as, by the way?

well, it depends, if it is 7 9 it doesnt make much sense unless it is treated as 79
if it is 7 1/2 it can either be 7&1/2 or 7*1/2 hence the doubt.

Not a great clarification either (tit for tat)

How on earth could p q possibly become p + q?

Come on now n cheer up...

A teacher was giving a lesson on the circulation of the blood. Trying to make the matter clearer, he said: "Now, students, if I stood on my head the blood, as you know, would run into it, and I should turn red in the face."

"Yes, sir," the boys said.

"Then why is it that while I am standing upright in the ordinary position the blood doesn't run into my feet?"

A little fellow shouted, "'It's because yer feet ain't empty."

sanju09 wrote: How on earth could p q possibly become p + q?

12 1/2 ==== can be 12+1/2 and your answer choices give an indication that q is a fraction.

I have made my point very clear without a story. (I am not quite sure where will that put me in smartness scale)

ajith wrote:

sanju09 wrote: How on earth could p q possibly become p + q?

12 1/2 ==== can be 12+1/2 and your answer choices give an indication that q is a fraction.

I have made my point very clear without a story. (I am not quite sure where will that put me in smartness scale)

there are no choices as such

sanju09 wrote:Is p q a prime number?

(2) q is a fraction.

Oh did I read q is a fraction?

ajith wrote:

sanju09 wrote:Is p q a prime number?

(2) q is a fraction.

Oh did I read q is a fraction?

Oh yeah you certainly did! But that's mere information served in the form of statement (2) of the DS question, which must not be taken as an answer choice. Moreover, if the two unknown variables, p and q were to replace 7 and ½, respectively, then 7 ½ must have to be written as p + q, and 7 * ½ as p q. Don't you agree?

And what do you mean by 'q is a fraction'? Fractions are not a category of number; they are a way of expressing a number. Any number can be written as a fraction: we can write 5 as 10/2, or sqrt(2) as 2/sqrt(2), for example. So Statement 2 above tells you nothing about q...

...and hence the answer to this question is...Ian?

OK.. enough bickering! Here's how the question almost certainly should have been written:

Is pq a prime number?

- when we see two variables side by side, the conventional interpretation is that they're multiplied together.

(1) p is prime.

If p is prime and q is 1, then pq will be prime. If p is prime and q is 2, then pq won't be prime: insufficient.

(2) q is a proper fraction.

- the only reasonable interpretation of (2).

If q is 1/2 and p is 4, then pq is prime; if q is 1/2 and p is 12, then pq isn't prime: insufficient.

Together:

if p=5 and q=1/2, then pq isn't prime.

if p=5 and q=3/5, then pq is prime.

Still insufficient, choose E.

Stuart Kovinsky wrote:OK.. enough bickering! Here's how the question almost certainly should have been written:

Is pq a prime number?

- when we see two variables side by side, the conventional interpretation is that they're multiplied together.

(1) p is prime.

If p is prime and q is 1, then pq will be prime. If p is prime and q is 2, then pq won't be prime: insufficient.

(2) q is a proper fraction.

- the only reasonable interpretation of (2).

If q is 1/2 and p is 4, then pq is prime; if q is 1/2 and p is 12, then pq isn't prime: insufficient.

Together:

if p=5 and q=1/2, then pq isn't prime.

if p=5 and q=3/5, then pq is prime.

Still insufficient, choose E.

[spoiler]OA E[/spoiler]

A fraction (from the Latin fractus, broken) is a number that can represent part of a whole.
The earliest fractions were reciprocals of integers, symbols representing one half, one third, one quarter, and so on.[1] A much later development were the common or "vulgar" fractions which are still used today, and which consist of a numerator and a denominator, the numerator representing a number of equal parts and the denominator telling how many of those parts make up a whole. An example is 3/4, in which the numerator, 3, tells us that the fraction represents 3 equal parts, and the denominator, 4, tells us that 4 parts make up a whole.
A still later development was the decimal fraction, now usually called simply a "decimal", in which the denominator is a power of ten, determined by the number of digits to the right of a decimal separator. In English-speaking and many Asian and Arabic-speaking countries, a period (.) or raised period ("¢) is used as the decimal separator. In most other countries, however, a comma is used. Thus in 0.75 the numerator is 75 and the denominator is 10 to the second power (because there are two digits to the right of the decimal). Thus the denominator is 100.
A third kind of fraction still in common use is the "per cent", in which the denominator is always 100. Thus 75% means 75/100.
Other uses for fractions are to represent ratios, and to represent division. Thus the fraction 3/4 is also used to represent the ratio 3:4 (three to four) and the division 3 ÷ 4 (three divided by four).
In mathematics, the set of all (vulgar) fractions is called the set of rational numbers, and is represented by the symbol Q.

Courtesy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraction_(mathematics)