For any integers x and y, min(x, y) and max(x, y) denote the minimum and the maximum of x and y, respectively. For example, min(5, 2) = 2 and max(5, 2) = 5. For the integer w, what is the value of min(10, w) ?
(1) w = max(20, z) for some integer z.
(2) w = max(10, w)
Target question:
What is the value of min(10, w)?
Statement 1: w = max(20, z) for some integer z.
Let's take a closer look at max(20, z)
If z
< 20, then max(20, z) = 20
If z > 20, then max(20, z) = some value greater than 20
So, max(20, z) must be greater than or equal to 20
Since, w = max(20, z), we can conclude that
w is greater than or equal to 20
From this, we can conclude that
min(10, w) = 10, since 10 will be the lesser value
Since we can answer the
target question with certainty, statement 1 is SUFFICIENT
Statement 2: w = max(10, w)
If w = max(10, w), then w is the larger value.
In other words,
w is greater than or equal to 10
If w is greater than or equal to 10, then we can conclude that
min(10, w) = 10
Since we can answer the
target question with certainty, statement 2 is SUFFICIENT
Answer =
D
Cheers,
Brent
