BTGmoderatorLU wrote:Source: Manhattan Prep
A list kept at Town Hall contains that town's average daily temperature in Fahrenheit, rounded to the nearest integer, for each day of a particular completed month. Does this month have 30 or 31 days?
1) The median temperature is 73.5.
2) The sum of the average daily temperatures is divisible by 3.
The OA is A
Target question: Does this month have 30 or 31 days?
IMPORTANT: Notice that the question does not ask "How many days are in this month?" If that were the case, then we'd have to consider February. Instead, the question is ruling out February by basically telling us that the month in question has EITHER 30 days OR 31 days. So, we need not consider February as a possibility.
Statement 1: The median temperature is 73.5
Since all of the temperatures in question were ROUNDED TO THE NEAREST INTEGER, the median will be a non-integer ONLY IF there is an even number of temperatures to consider.
In other words, the month must have an even number of days.
So,
the month must have 30 days
Since we can answer the
target question with certainty, statement 1 is SUFFICIENT
Statement 2: The sum of the average daily temperatures is divisible by 3
Consider these two conflicting cases that both meet this condition:
Case a:
the month has 30 days, and the temperature is 3 degrees
everyday. This will result in the sum of the average daily temperatures being divisible by 3
Case b:
the month has 31 days, and the temperature is 3 degrees
everyday. This will result in the sum of the average daily temperatures being divisible by 3
Since we cannot answer the
target question with certainty, statement 2 is NOT SUFFICIENT
Answer: A
Cheers,
Brent
Brent Hanneson - Creator of GMATPrepNow.com
