absolute values and squares

This topic has expert replies
Source: — Problem Solving |

User avatar
MBA Admissions Consultant
Posts: 2279
Joined: Fri Nov 11, 2011 7:51 am
Location: New York
Thanked: 660 times
Followed by:266 members
GMAT Score:770

by Jim@StratusPrep » Sat Oct 20, 2012 6:25 am
You did the problem correctly. If you test numbers from there you will see that the only place you have a negative number is between 1 and -1.
GMAT Answers provides a world class adaptive learning platform.
-- Push button course navigation to simplify planning
-- Daily assignments to fit your exam timeline
-- Organized review that is tailored based on your abiility
-- 1,000s of unique GMAT questions
-- 100s of handwritten 'digital flip books' for OG questions
-- 100% Free Trial and less than $20 per month after.
-- Free GMAT Quantitative Review

Image

Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2013 3:01 pm

by ines17 » Mon Feb 11, 2013 1:43 pm
I'm not sure if I understood this problem correctly. Can you please explain the solution in detail?

Thanks

Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts
Posts: 20
Joined: Sat Jan 26, 2013 11:38 pm

by vishalbpr » Tue Feb 12, 2013 1:08 am
In case of statement 1 you have derived to right conclusion

1) (x-1)(x+1)<0

It means -1 < x < 1, so x varies from -1 to 1, so in questions it talks about |x| which is always less than 1.

(2) |x| < 1/x
|x| is always positive, so for negative values of x this property would not hold right.
So for positive values equation is like this..

x*x - 1 < 0 when x > 0

Again x varies from 0 to 1, so 0 < x < 1, so |x| will always be less than 1.

With both the choices you can answer the question mentioned above, so D is the right answer.