Tricked by this DS question

[soni_pallavi]

Q)Of the 60 animal on a farm 2/3 are either cows or pigs.How many Cows??


1)There are more than twice as many cows as pigs

2)There are more than 12 pigs

Could the community provide an explanation for this one??

Thanks

[jkaustubh]

Again according to me the answer is A

Question:

farm animals = 60

2/3 either cows or pigs

so either cows = 40 or pigs =40

now

Statement 1:

There are more than twice as many cows as pigs

this means

C>2P

where C = number of cows
P = number of pigs

this is only possible if C = 40

hence statement 1 is sufficient

Statement 2:
There are more than 12 pigs

we cannot say about the exact number of cows or pigs

hence statement 2 is insufficient.

Hence the answer shall be A

[soni_pallavi]

I had A as the answer too, though it turns out the answer's C.

Hence seeking an explanation...

[jkaustubh]

working on this one. what about the other two questions??

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https://www.manhattangmat.com/forums/post15358.html

the statement "2/3 are either cows or pigs" doesn't mean that there are either 40 cows or 40 pigs. it means that, if you take the cows and the pigs together, they constitute 2/3 of the animals on the farm.
in other words, cows + pigs = 40.
(i can understand your alternate reading of the problem statement; it's reasonable enough. just remember that the gmat is their playground, not yours, and so you have to play by their rules - so remember the way certain statements are written. as a postscript, i hope that future problems like this one will be purged and/or rewritten for clarity before they make it into the official question pool; it would be a shame if students miss the problem just because of its ambiguity.)

thus:

(1)
this means that there are at least 27 cows (because 27 cows, 13 pigs is the least # of cows satisfying this criterion).
that's all we know, though; there could be anywhere between 27 cows (and therefore 13 pigs) and 40 cows (and therefore 0 pigs).
insufficient

(2)
this means that there are at least 13 pigs, which means that there are at most 27 cows.
that's all we know.
insufficient

(together)
(1) says there are at least 27 cows; (2) says there are at most 27 cows.
so, there are 27 cows and 13 pigs.
sufficient

answer = c

[soni_pallavi]

Thanks!!

As you mentioned it was due to the ambiguity of the language in the question that is meant to make the question tricky.