Fractions - Three business partners

[gmattesttaker2]

Hello,

This is from MGMAT:

Three business partners owned 100% of a certain company. When they sold the company, one partner received exactly 5/8 of the proceeds of the sale and the other partners shared the remainder of the proceeds. How much money did the partner who received the smallest amount of the proceeds receive from the sale?


(1) The partner who received the smallest amount from the sale received exactly 1/5 the amount received by the partner who received the second largest amount.


(2) The partner who received the second largest amount from the sale received half of the two million dollars received by the partner who received the largest amount.


OA: B


Can you please tell me if my approach is correct:

Let total proceeds be x

1st partner received (5/8)x. 2nd and 3rd partners received (3/8)x. (Given)

So 2nd partner received (2/8)x - 2nd largest share

and 3rd partner received (1/8)x - 3rd largest share

To find: (1/8)x = ?


1) (1/8)x = (1/5)(2/8)x - Insufficient

2) (2/8)x = 1 Million - Sufficient



Thanks,
Sri

[Matt@VeritasPrep]

Not bad!

A warning, though: you can't assume from the prompt that the other portions were broken into 8ths. One partner could've gotten 5/16 and the other 1/16, or some such.

How I'd do it:

S1::

Top partner = 5/8
Bottom partner = (1/5)*(5/8) = 1/8

So the middle partner got 2/8. I know the portions, but I don't have a $ amount, which is what the question is after.

S2::

Top partner = 5/8 of x, where x is the total proceeds

5/8 of x = $2,000,000
x = $3,200,000

Second partner gets $1,000,000
Third partner gets the rest = $3,200,000 - $2,000,000 - $1,000,000 = $200,000

So I have the amount, and I'm good.