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[magical cook]

A merchant discounted the sale price of a coat and the sale price of a sweater. Which of
the two articles of clothing was discounted by the greater dollar amount?

(1) The percent discount on the coat was 2 percentage points greater than the
percent discount on the sweater.
(2) Before the discounts, the sale price of the coat was $10 less than the sale price of
the sweater.

[radhika1306]

Ans is C?

[gabriel]

Ans is C?

hey come on!!.. this helps no one .. plz do post the method you used to arrive at your answer ..

[radhika1306]

sorry
statement 1) doesn't give the which is higher in price the sweater or the the coat
so if the sweather is 10 and the coat is 20
and 10% of 10= 1 so the sweater costs 9
and 12% of 20=2.4--> coat is higher dollar amount discount
now if u reverse the prices then
10 % of 20= 2-->sweater is higher discount
12 % of 10=1.2

But from statement 2 we know
that coat is 10 lesser than sweater ,but we don't know the discount %
taking both together we'll get the value

So i think C:)
But not sure so can we have OA

[magical cook]

Unfortunately, OA is not C....

Can anyone help us?

[givemeanid]

You cannot calculate the discounted dollar amount without knowing the actual base price. You only know the difference in prices. It should be E.

[Bharat]

Answer should be E
Let the price of the coat be $100, thus the sweater price would be $110
if the discount on sweater is x% then discount on coat would be x+2 %
calculating the discount:
for sweater: x% of $110= $1.1x
for coat: (x+2) % of $100 = $ (x+2)

for comparing the two discounts we have to ensure that x+2 & 1.1x always have same equality (either always equal or always greater/lesser)

which is same as comparing 2 & 0.1x
2 > 0.1x if x < 20
2 = 0.1x if x =20
2 < 0.1x if x > 20

hence the entire discount amount is dependent on the actual discount %.

So the given data is insufficient. ANSWER = E

[magical cook]

Thank you - yes answer is E.

BTW, if the statment 2) is like

2) Before the discounts, the sale price of the coat was $50 and sale price of the sweater was $80

could the answer be C combined with the statement 1) of discount percentage difference, OR do we also need to know actual number of discount percentage for each?

[Bharat]

No, in this again case E would be the answer.

Question would become:
A merchant discounted the sale price of a coat and the sale price of a sweater. Which of the two articles of clothing was discounted by the greater dollar amount?
(1) The percent discount on the coat was 2 percentage points greater than the percent discount on the sweater.
2) Before the discounts, the sale price of the coat was $50 and sale price of the sweater was $80

Solution:
taking 1 & 2 together:
Let the discount on sweater be x% (of $80) = 0.8x = D1 (let's say)
Then discount on coat is: (x + 2) % (of $50) = 0.5x + 1 = D2 (let's say)

D1 > D2 if 0.3x > 1
D1 = D2 if 0.3x = 1
D1 < D2 if 0.3x < 1

hence again, information is not sufficient.

Hence E would be the answer.

[magical cook]

Thank you Bharat. So, to answer "which is greater in discount amount", we need to know actual discount percentage as well as discount price ?

[Scott@TargetTestPrep]

A merchant discounted the sale price of a coat and the sale price of a sweater. Which of
the two articles of clothing was discounted by the greater dollar amount?

(1) The percent discount on the coat was 2 percentage points greater than the
percent discount on the sweater.
(2) Before the discounts, the sale price of the coat was $10 less than the sale price of
the sweater.

Solution:

Question Stem Analysis:

We need to determine which of the two articles of clothing, the coat or the sweater, was discounted by the greater dollar amount.

Statement One Alone:

Statement one alone is not sufficient to answer the question since it depends on the original prices of the coat and sweater. If they had the same price originally, then the coat would have a greater dollar amount discount. However, if the sweater had a higher price than the coat, the sweater could have a greater dollar amount discount. For example, if the coat was $30 originally and the discount was 10%, the coat was discounted by $3. However, if the sweater was $40 originally and the discount was 8%, the sweater was discounted by $3.20.

Statement Two Alone:

Statement two alone is not sufficient to answer the question since it depends on the percentages of discount of the coat and sweater. If they had the same percentage, then the sweater would have a greater dollar amount discount. However, if the coat had a higher percentage discount than the sweater, the coat could have a greater dollar amount discount. For example, if the sweater was $100 originally and the discount was 8%, the sweater was discounted by $8. However, if the coat was $90 originally and the discount was 10%, the coat was discounted by $9.

Statements One and Two Alone:

Even with the two statements, there is still not enough information to answer the question since we can use the same examples that we used in statements one and two. In statement one, we see that given that the original price sweater was $10 more than that of the coat, and the percent discount of the coat is 2% more than that of the sweater, so the sweater had a greater dollar amount discount ($3.20 vs. $3). However, in statement two, given the same conditions, the coat had a greater dollar amount discount ($9 vs. $8).

Answer: E