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by wawatan » Wed May 21, 2008 3:28 pm
A jewelry dealer initially offered a bracelet for sale at an asking price that would give a profit to the dealer of 40 percent of the original cost. What was the original cost of the bracelet?
(1) After reducing this asking price by 10 percent, the jewelry dealer sold the bracelet at a profit of $403.
(2) The jewelry dealer sold the bracelet for $1,953.


I thought the answer is D.

I set up the equation as 1.40X=Asking price
so x=original price
isn't asking price the same as selling price?

also, how do you set up statement 1 in an equation. i'm horrible with percents. the only formula i know is % increase= diff/orig *100

is there other formulas i should be working with?


the OA is A
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by luvaduva » Wed May 21, 2008 5:28 pm
From the stem:

Profit = Sales Price - Cost => p = s - c

The asking price is what he *wants* to sell it for. If he gets his asking price(then asking price = sales price) then he will make the 40% profit, otherwise his profit will decrease.

Initially, we can set up an equation like this:

4/10s = s - c

(1) Tells us that he didn't get his asking price so he is loosing profit. He reduced his asking price by 10% and this is what it sold for so this is the selling price.

His selling price decreased by 10% so his profit decreased also. Now, his profit went from 4/10s to 4/10 of 9/10s => (36/100)s.

We are told that the profit was $403. We can use this to find the sale price:

403 = (36/100)s => s = 403(100/36) = 1119.4

We can use this and the profit to find the cost c.

p = s - c = > 403 = 1119.4 - c => c = 1119.4 - 403 = 716.4

(2) Not sufficient because we only know what he sold it for. If he sold it for his asking price then this is valid. If, as in above, he had to decrease his asking price to sell it, then this is not valid. We would need to know how much he decreased his asking price by so we can set up an appropriate ratio for the profit to sale price.

Anyways, I hope I did this correctly. I was a bit rushed. Please let me know if I made a mistake somewhere.
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by AleksandrM » Wed May 21, 2008 6:26 pm
Here goes:

He was going to sell the bracelet for 1.4x. Then he decided to reduce THIS asking price by 10 percent. So from the stem and statement one you have

1.4x - .1x(1.4x) = x + 403

1.26x = x + 403

.26x = 403

x = 1550

For the second statement you have 1.4x = z, which is the asking price.

When you equate 1.4x to 1953, x ends up being 13 hundred something, which is not what you have from statement one. Since both statements have to give the same result, A is enough. You could say that maybe there is a mistake, but I would say that I am much more confident in the algebra from statement one, so statement two must give the wrong answer, and is therefore not sufficient.
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by senthil » Wed May 21, 2008 6:49 pm
I feel the answer can be obtained using both datas independently ... I am not sure about the choices it is D!


Let me know if I am wrong
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by wawatan » Wed May 21, 2008 8:00 pm
you are wrong. the official answer is A.
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by sxjain3 » Thu May 22, 2008 8:13 am
Statement 2 would have been sufficient if it had mentioned that the sale price of $1953 was the same as asking price. As it doesnt mention it explicitly its risky to assume that they both are same. and because was not certain, B is insufficient.

(I) will provide the answer, but didnt evern try to answer it, as its apparent that it will provide the anser

So A..
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