BTGmoderatorDC wrote: ↑Mon Feb 15, 2021 6:13 pm
Pat bought 5 pounds of apples. How many pounds of pears could he have bought for same amount of money?
(1) 1 pound of pears cost $0.5 more that 1 pound of apples
(2) 1 pound of pears cost 1.5 times as much as 1 pound of apples
OA
B
Source: GMAT Prep
Given: Pat bought 5 pounds of apples.
Target question: How many pounds of pears could Pat have bought for the same amount of money?
This is a good candidate for
rephrasing the target question.
Let A = the price per pound of apples
Let P = the price per pound of pears
If Pat bought 5 pounds of apples, then 5A = the total amount that Pat spent
Pat then wants to spend her 5A dollars on pears
So,
5A/P = the number of pounds of pears Pat can buy with the 5A dollars
REPHRASED target question: What is the value of 5A/P?
Aside: Below, you'll find a video with tips on rephrasing the target question
Statement 1: One pound of pears costs 0.50$ more than one pound of apples.
In other words, P = A + 0.5
Does this help us determine
the value of 5A/P?
No.
Take 5A/P and replace P with A + 0.5 to get: 5A/P = 5A/(A + 0.5)
Since there's no way to determine the value of 5A/(A + 0.5) (aka 5A/P), we cannot answer the
REPHRASED target question with certainty.
So, statement 1 is NOT SUFFICIENT
Statement 2: One pound of pears costs 3/2 times as much as one pound of apples.
In other words, P = (3/2)A or we can write P = 1.5A
Does this help us determine
the value of 5A/P?
Yes!!
Take 5A/P and replace P with 1.5A to get:
5A/P = 5A/1.5A = 5/1.5 = 3 1/3
Since we can answer the
REPHRASED target question with certainty, statement 2 is SUFFICIENT
Answer: B
Cheers,
Brent
