A recipe requires 2 1/2 (mixed number) cups of flour 2 3/4..

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BTGmoderatorLU: Moderator; Posts: 2505; Joined: Sun Oct 15, 2017 1:50 pm; Followed by:6 members

A recipe requires 2 1/2 (mixed number) cups of flour 2 3/4..

by BTGmoderatorLU » Fri Dec 08, 2017 11:10 am

A recipe requires 2 1/2 9mixed number) cups of flour 2 3/4 (mixed number) cups of sugar and 1 1/3 (mixed number) cups of milk to make one cake. Victor has 15 cups of flour, 16 cups of sugar and 8 cups of milk. What is the greatest number of cakes Victor can make using this recipe?

A. 5
B. 6
C. 7
D. 8
E. 9

The OA is A .

I'm confused with this PS question. Please, can any expert assist me with it? Thanks in advanced.

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Problem Solving | Fri Dec 08, 2017 11:10 am

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ErikaPrepScholar: Legendary Member; Posts: 503; Joined: Thu Jul 20, 2017 9:03 am; Thanked: 86 times; Followed by:15 members; GMAT Score:770

by ErikaPrepScholar » Fri Dec 08, 2017 11:27 am

Let's start by evaluating how many cakes we can make considering one ingredient at a time.

Flour: If each cake uses 2.5 cups, we can make 2 cakes with 5 cups, and 6 cakes with 15 cups. Right away, we can eliminate everything except A and B.

Sugar: If each cake uses 2.75 cups, we can make 2 cakes with 5.5 cups, and 6 cakes with 16.5 cups. However, we only have 16 cups, so we can only make 5 cakes. We can eliminate B, leaving us with A, which must be our answer.

We can confirm by repeating the process with milk.

Milk: If each cake uses 1.333333 cups, we can make 3 cakes with 4 cups, and 6 cakes with 8 cups. So sugar is still our limiting factor.