OG12 DS Q46 and Q47

[icely]

Hi all

Two simple questions in OG12, DS-section Q46 and Q47 (page 304 in the explanation section):

Q46: How can the decimal r represented by 0.t5 assumed to be positive - considering that nothing is stated in the question stem about r being positive OR negative? In statement 1, if r < 1/3, then t could be 0<=t<=9, e.g. r = -0.95 ... r = 0.25. Same trail of thought applies to statement 2 where if r < 1/10, then t could be 0<=t<=9, e.g. r = -0.95 ... r = 0.05, thus t could be 0...9?

Assuming r > 0, then correct answer would be B since t must be 0, else I'd choose E. Any thoughts?

Q47: The word "apart" could men above, diagonally "apart" or "apart" to the side. How can one extract that "apart" means "above" for which Statement 1 is naturally sufficient?

Sorry for being anal about this, but above is not at par with common sense...or what am I missing?

[eagleeye]

Hi all

Two simple questions in OG12, DS-section Q46 and Q47 (page 304 in the explanation section):

Q46: How can the decimal r represented by 0.t5 assumed to be positive - considering that nothing is stated in the question stem about r being positive OR negative? In statement 1, if r < 1/3, then t could be 0<=t<=9, e.g. r = -0.95 ... r = 0.25. Same trail of thought applies to statement 2 where if r < 1/10, then t could be 0<=t<=9, e.g. r = -0.95 ... r = 0.05, thus t could be 0...9?
Assuming r > 0, then correct answer would be B since t must be 0, else I'd choose E. Any thoughts?

Hi icely:

In this question we are told that r=0.t5, which by design is positive.
If they wanted us to consider r negative, they would have written r= -0.t5
Remember, 0.t5 = +0.t5 which means that r is definitely positive.
Since we know r>0, as you said answer is B.

Q47: The word "apart" could men above, diagonally "apart" or "apart" to the side. How can one extract that "apart" means "above" for which Statement 1 is naturally sufficient?

Sorry for being anal about this, but above is not at par with common sense...or what am I missing?

When they are saying that the two floors of the building are apart, they unambiguously mean one thing. If there's a ground floor and a first floor, the distance between floors is always the vertical distance and never the diagonal. Hence you only consider the "apart to the side".

Let me know if this helps

[icely]

Thanks eagleeye, very helpful and it makes more sense.

Just that I perceive GMAT question makers to often disguise a simple math concept in a tough question statements, and then I tend to get over-creative about the question formulation.

All good now