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Which is nearer to N

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by veenu08 » Tue Jul 09, 2013 10:12 am
which of 10^-3 and 10^-2 is nearer to number N ?

A. N is nearer to 10^-4 than 10^-1
B. N is nearer to 10^-3 than 10^-1

OA E

I got the answer by plotting on number line, but is there any other more effective way to do this question?
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Source: — Data Sufficiency |

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by [email protected] » Tue Jul 09, 2013 12:06 pm
Hi veenu08,

Using a number line to plot the possibilities is actually a really smart way to do things. It adds a "visual component" to the work which many people find useful for Quant questions (and even on some Verbal questions). Keep looking to use this tactic whenever appropriate.

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by Matt@VeritasPrep » Fri Jul 12, 2013 1:16 pm
Hi Veenu!

I don't think this approach would make this particular question any easier, but one way you can algebraically represent "N is nearer to 1/10,000 than it is to 1/10" is

|N - 1/10,000| < |N - 1/10|

In this equation, |N - 1/10,000| is the distance between N and 1/10,000 and |N - 1/10| is the distance between N and 1/10. Since "nearer to" means "lesser distance", the inequality points to |N - 1/10,000|.

Also, this question is poorly worded: it's not clear whether "N is nearer to 1/10,000 than it is to 1/10" or "N is nearer to 1/10,000 than 1/10 is to 1/10,000" (though the first statement seems likelier to be what the author intended, the second one, frustrating as it is, is quite possible). On the GMAT, however, you wouldn't encounter this kind of ambiguity.
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