An art gallery has only paintings and sculptures.

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An art gallery has only paintings and sculptures. Currently, 1/3 of the pieces of art are displayed, and 1/6 of the pieces on display are sculptures. If 1/3 of the pieces not on display are paintings, and 200 sculptures are not on display, how many pieces of art does the gallery have?

360

450

540

640

720

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by [email protected] » Sun Sep 21, 2014 11:00 am
Hi gmat_guy666,

This question can be solved either algebraically or by TESTing THE ANSWERS. Here's how you can use TEST THE ANSWERS;

We're asked for the TOTAL PIECES OF ART the gallery has....we know that there are only 2 types: paintings and sculptures....

First, we're told that 1/3 of the pieces are on display, so the total MUST be a multiple of 3. Let's TEST Answer B first (Answer D is NOT a multiple of 3, so it CANNOT be the answer).

If....
Total pieces of art = 450
Pieces on Display = (1/3)(450) = 150

1/6 of the pieces on display are sculptures
Pieces on Display = 150
Sculptures on Display = (1/6)(150) = 25
Paintings on Display = 125

Pieces NOT on Display = 300
Paintings = (1/3)(300) = 100
Sculptures = 200 --> This matches the last piece of information PERFECTLY.

Thus, the total number of pieces MUST be 450.

Final Answer: B

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by GMATGuruNY » Sun Sep 21, 2014 12:42 pm
gmat_guy666 wrote:An art gallery has only paintings and sculptures. Currently, 1/3 of the pieces of art are displayed, and 1/6 of the pieces on display are sculptures. If 1/3 of the pieces not on display are paintings, and 200 sculptures are not on display, how many pieces of art does the gallery have?

360

450

540

640

720

OAB
This is an EITHER/OR group problem.
Every piece of art is EITHER a painting OR a sculpture.
Every piece of art is EITHER displayed OR not displayed.
For an EITHER/OR group problem, we can use a GROUP GRID (also known as a double-matrix) to organize the data.

Let P = paintings, S = sculptures, D = displayed, ND = not displayed.
Let the total number of pieces of art = 18x.
Here's the grid:
Image
In the grid above, the entries in any given row or column must add up to the TOTAL of that row or column.

Currently, 1/3 of the pieces of art are displayed.
The following grid is yielded:
Image

1/6 of the pieces on display are sculptures.
The following grid is yielded:
Image

1/3 of the pieces not on display are paintings.
The following grid is yielded:
Image

200 sculptures are not on display.
According to the completed grid, sculptures not displayed = 8x.
Thus:
8x = 200
x = 25.

How many pieces of art does the gallery have?
Total number of pieces of art = 18x = 18*25 = 450.

The correct answer is B.
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by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Mon Sep 22, 2014 1:21 pm
I'd like to point out that Mitch's "group grid" (aka Double Matrix Method) can be used for most questions featuring a population in which each member has two characteristics associated with it.
Here, we have a population of art pieces, and the two characteristics are:
- painting or sculpture
- on display or not on display

This question type is VERY COMMON on the GMAT, so be sure to master the technique.

To learn more about the Double Matrix Method, watch our free video: https://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gmat- ... ems?id=919

Once you're familiar with this technique, you can attempt these additional practice questions:

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by chacha0212 » Thu Sep 25, 2014 11:24 am
nevermind!