Animals DS:

This topic has expert replies
Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 271
Joined: Tue May 22, 2012 3:22 am
Thanked: 7 times
Followed by:3 members

Animals DS:

by \'manpreet singh » Sat Aug 31, 2013 3:05 am
Of the 60 animals in a certain farm, 2/3 are either pigs or cows.How many of the animals are cows?

i) The farm has more than twice as many cows as it has pigs.
ii)The farm has more than 12 pigs.

GMAT/MBA Expert

User avatar
GMAT Instructor
Posts: 16207
Joined: Mon Dec 08, 2008 6:26 pm
Location: Vancouver, BC
Thanked: 5254 times
Followed by:1268 members
GMAT Score:770

by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Sat Aug 31, 2013 5:10 am
'manpreet singh wrote:Of the 60 animals in a certain farm, 2/3 are either pigs or cows.How many of the animals are cows?

i) The farm has more than twice as many cows as it has pigs.
ii)The farm has more than 12 pigs.
Target question: How many of the animals are cows?

Given: Of the 60 animals in a certain farm, 2/3 are either pigs or cows
Let P = # of pigs
Let C = # of cows
2/3 of 60 = 40, so we can say that P + C = 40

Statement 1: The farm has more than twice as many cows as it has pigs.
In other words, P < 2C
If we know P < 2C and P + C = 40, do we have sufficient information to find the value of C?
No. Consider these 2 conflicting cases:
Case a: P = 1 and C = 39, in which case there are 39 cows
Case b: P = 2 and C = 38, in which case there are 38 cows
Since we cannot answer the target question with certainty, statement 1 is NOT SUFFICIENT

Statement 2: The farm has more than 12 pigs.
There's no way we can use this information to determine the number of cows.
Since we cannot answer the target question with certainty, statement 2 is NOT SUFFICIENT

Statements 1 and 2 combined
Statement 2 says that P > 12. So, let's examine some possibilities.
If P = 13, then C > 26 (from statement 1). So, C must equal 27 (since P + C = 40)
If P = 14, then C > 28 (from statement 1). In this case, P+C will be greater than 40, but we need P+C to equal 40 (from the given information). So, P cannot equal 14.
In fact, for the same reasons, P cannot equal 15, 16, 17, etc. . .

So, the only case that's possible is for there to be 13 pigs and 27 cows
Since we can now answer the target question with certainty, the combined statements are SUFFICIENT

Answer = C

Cheers,
Brent
Brent Hanneson - Creator of GMATPrepNow.com
Image