In the coordinate plane system, does line L pass through

This topic has expert replies
Legendary Member
Posts: 2251
Joined: Sun Oct 29, 2017 2:04 pm
Followed by:6 members

Timer

00:00

Your Answer

A

B

C

D

E

Global Stats

In the coordinate plane system, does line L pass through 3rd quadrant?

1) The slope of line L is positive.
2) Line L has x-intercept -2 and y-intercept 3.

The OA is D.

How is statement 1 sufficient? Can someone elaborate, please? Thanks!

GMAT/MBA Expert

Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts
Posts: 38
Joined: Mon Mar 19, 2018 6:26 am
Followed by:1 members

by Keith@ThePrincetonReview » Fri Jun 15, 2018 12:27 pm

Timer

00:00

Your Answer

A

B

C

D

E

Global Stats

swerve wrote:In the coordinate plane system, does line L pass through 3rd quadrant?

1) The slope of line L is positive.
2) Line L has x-intercept -2 and y-intercept 3.

The OA is D.

How is statement 1 sufficient? Can someone elaborate, please? Thanks!
Hi swerve,

To answer your question, consider a vertical line and a horizontal line.
Were line L to be a vertical or horizontal line, then it would be possible for line L not to pass through the 3rd quadrant (for example, consider the lines x = 2 and y = 2, neither of which passes through the 3rd quadrant).
However, the slope of a horizontal line is 0, and the slope of a vertical line is undefined, so if line L has a positive slope, then line L can't be vertical or horizontal.
Finally, because a line is of infinite length, a line with a positive slope will eventually pass through the 3rd quadrant.

Statement (1) is sufficient to produce a consistent "Yes" answer, and since Statement (2) provides the coordinates of two points on the line, it is also sufficient to produce a consistent "Yes" answer.
The correct answer is choice D.