Data Sufficiency

Vincen wrote:Is f < g?

(1) f < g + 1
(2) |f|/|g| < 1

We need to determine whether f < g.

Statement One Alone:

f < g + 1

Statement one alone is not sufficient to answer the question. For example, if f = 2 and g = 2, then f IS NOT less than g. However, if f = 1 and g = 2, then f IS less than g.

Statement Two Alone:

|f|/|g| < 1

We can multiply both sides of the inequality by |g| to get:

|f| < |g|

We can also determine that statement two alone is not sufficient to answer the question.

For example, if f = -1 and g = -2, then f IS NOT less than g. However, if f = 1 and g = 2, then f IS less than g.

Statements One and Two Together:

Using the information from statements one and two, we know that f < g + 1 and that |f| < |g|. This is still not enough information to answer the question.

For example, if f = -1 and g = -1.5, then f IS NOT less than g. However, if f = 1 and g = 2, then f IS less than g.

Answer: E