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Is 1 < x < 2?

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Source: — Data Sufficiency |

Re: Is 1 < x < 2?

by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Sun Aug 23, 2020 6:04 am
BTGModeratorVI wrote:
Thu Aug 20, 2020 7:18 am
Is 1 < x < 2?

(1) 0 < x
(2) x < 3

Answer: E
Source: Official guide
Target question: Is 1 < x < 2?

When I SCAN the two statements, they both feel insufficient, AND I’m pretty sure I can identify some cases with conflicting answers to the target question. So, I’m going to head straight to……

Statements 1 and 2 combined
Statement 1 tells us that 0 < x
Statement 2 tells us that x < 3
When we combine the two inequalities we get: 0 < x < 3
There are infinitely-many values of x that satisfy the inequality 0 < x < 3. Here are two:
Case a: x = 1.5. In this case, the answer to the target question is YES, it's true that 1 < x < 2
Case b: x = 0.5. In this case, the answer to the target question is NO, it's not true that 1 < x < 2
Since we cannot answer the target question with certainty, the combined statements are NOT SUFFICIENT

Answer: E

Cheers,
Brent
Brent Hanneson - Creator of GMATPrepNow.com
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