Company X has 800 employees and Company Y has 600 employees.

[BTGModeratorVI]

Company X has 800 employees and Company Y has 600 employees. Among these employees, there are 50 married couples, each consisting of an employee from Company X and an employee from Company Y. If 1 employee is to be selected at random from each company, what is the probability that the 2 employees selected will be a married couple?

A) 1/480,000
B) 1/9,600
C) 7/2,400
D) 1/192
E) 7/48

Source: GMAT Hacks
Answer: B

[Brent@GMATPrepNow]

Company X has 800 employees and Company Y has 600 employees. Among these employees, there are 50 married couples, each consisting of an employee from Company X and an employee from Company Y. If 1 employee is to be selected at random from each company, what is the probability that the 2 employees selected will be a married couple?

A) 1/480,000
B) 1/9,600
C) 7/2,400
D) 1/192
E) 7/48

Source: GMAT Hacks
Answer: B

P(select a married couple) = P(person selected from Company X is one of the 50 with spouse at Company Y AND person selected from Company Y is spouse of person selected from Company X)
= P(person selected from Company X is one of the 50 with spouse at Company Y) x P(person selected from Company Y is spouse of person already selected from Company X)
= (50/800) x (1/600)
= 1/9600
= B


Cheers,
Brent

[swerve]

Company X has 800 employees and Company Y has 600 employees. Among these employees, there are 50 married couples, each consisting of an employee from Company X and an employee from Company Y. If 1 employee is to be selected at random from each company, what is the probability that the 2 employees selected will be a married couple?

A) 1/480,000
B) 1/9,600
C) 7/2,400
D) 1/192
E) 7/48

Source: GMAT Hacks
Answer: B

We want to find the probability of randomly selecting a married couple. We can start from the probability of randomly selecting one person from Company X that is married, then find the probability of selecting that person's partner from company Y. Multiplying these will give the probability of selecting a married couple. That is
\(\dfrac{50}{800} \cdot \dfrac{1}{600} = \dfrac{1}{800} \cdot \dfrac{1}{12} = 1 \cdot 9600\).

[Jay@ManhattanReview]

Company X has 800 employees and Company Y has 600 employees. Among these employees, there are 50 married couples, each consisting of an employee from Company X and an employee from Company Y. If 1 employee is to be selected at random from each company, what is the probability that the 2 employees selected will be a married couple?

A) 1/480,000
B) 1/9,600
C) 7/2,400
D) 1/192
E) 7/48

Source: GMAT Hacks
Answer: B

Probability of selecting a married person from Company X = 50/800 = 1/16;

Since the selected married person from Company X would have his/her spouse in Company Y, the probability of selecting the spouse from Company Y = 1/600;

Required probability = 1/16 * 1/600 = 1/9,600

The correct answer: [spoiler][/spoiler]

Hope this helps!

-Jay
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Manhattan Review

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[gmatknight]

You should try to understand the underlying concepts at play with these questions, people.

It would interesting, however, to know if there was to immediately ballpark the correct answer in questions such as this.

Just a guy with a Q50.

[Scott@TargetTestPrep]

Company X has 800 employees and Company Y has 600 employees. Among these employees, there are 50 married couples, each consisting of an employee from Company X and an employee from Company Y. If 1 employee is to be selected at random from each company, what is the probability that the 2 employees selected will be a married couple?

A) 1/480,000
B) 1/9,600
C) 7/2,400
D) 1/192
E) 7/48

Source: GMAT Hacks
Answer: B

The probability of selecting a married person from company X = 50/800. The probability of selecting that person’s partner in Company Y is 1/600. Therefore, the overall probability of selecting a married couple is 50/800 * 1/600 = 1/800 * 1/12 = 1/9600.

Answer: B