GMAT Math

I'm trying to understand the difference between these 2 questions

1)In a mayoral election, Candidate X received 1/3 more votes than candidate Y. If candidate Y received 2400 votes, how many votes did candidate X receive".

2)In a mayoral election, Candidate X received 300 more votes than candidate Y. If candidate Y received 2400 votes, how many votes did candidate X recevie".



They both sound similar but the equation differs, at least the way I have it.

For question 2, I would say, X= Y+300; so X= 2700 votes; No issues I beleive.

For question 1 also, I did the same way, but apparently it's not right. I had, x= y+1/3 => x = 2400 + 1/3; But I later realized that you cannot have a fraction greater then the other person when talking about votes(or may be there can be a fraction of vote since it's indeed a number), it doesn't make sense. So it should be more like, X= Y+(1/3)(Y) =>x= 4/3 * y= >4/3 * 2400 = 3200 votes.

How do you differentiate between "more" in an algenric question like this. When we see a fraction more with large numbers, should we assume it's "more of the other person/variable" then just "more than the other person/variable" ? Appreciate anyone's calrification on this interpretation.

The phrase 1/3 more means more by a factor of 1/3. That is, take 1/3 of 2400 and add that result to 2400. Thus, x would have 2400 + 800 or 3200.

So we say that it's 1/3 "of" because it's a fraction?At least that's what I would assume since there is no difference with the "usage" of more in both the sentences, apart from one being a fraction and the other an integer. Otherwise, we can as well consider "more of" for both of the sentences and that would lead to 1/3y and 300y. Thanks!

Yes, I suppose it is weird in a way, but you are correct. When we want to describe a fractional relationship, we say 1/2 or 1/3 as many (fewer) and 1/2 or 1/3 more (for more).