Is square root of a positive integer x an integer?
(1) The sum of distinct factors of x is odd
(2) x has an odd number of distinct factor
The OA is B .
Experts, is there a formula I should use here? I don't know how to solve this DS question.
Is square root of a positive integer x an integer?
This topic has expert replies
- DavidG@VeritasPrep
- Legendary Member
- Posts: 2663
- Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2015 8:25 am
- Location: Boston, MA
- Thanked: 1153 times
- Followed by:128 members
- GMAT Score:770
Statement 1: x could be 2, as 1 + 2 = 3, which is odd; The square root of 2 is not an integer, so we have a NO.M7MBA wrote:Is square root of a positive integer x an integer?
(1) The sum of distinct factors of x is odd
(2) x has an odd number of distinct factor
The OA is B .
Experts, is there a formula I should use here? I don't know how to solve this DS question.
x. could be 4, as 1 + 2 + 4 = 7, which is odd. The square root of 4 is an integer, so we have a YES.
S1 alone is not sufficient.
Statement 2: A perfect square, by definition, has an ODD number of factors. (This makes sense. If we're thinking about pairs of integers that multiply to a perfect square, such as, say 4, we'd have 1*4 or 2*2. Because one of the pairs involves multiplying a number by itself and everything else involves two distinct factors, a perfect square must have an ODD number of factors.) Thus, if we know that a number has an ODD number of factors, we know we're talking about a perfect square, and so the answer to the question is YES, no matter what we pick, the square root of this value will always yield an integer. Statement 2 alone is sufficient to answer the question. The answer is B.