BREAKING: Target Test Prep releases Brand New 2026 On Demand GMAT prep course

Redeem

the bookshelves break

This topic has expert replies
Post new topic Post Reply
Previous Topic Next Topic
User avatar
GMAT Instructor
Posts: 3650
Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2009 4:27 am
Location: India
Thanked: 267 times
Followed by:80 members
GMAT Score:760

the bookshelves break

by sanju09 » Wed May 06, 2009 6:00 am
A total of b books are divided evenly among 12 bookshelves. If 2 of the bookshelves break, and the books are divided evenly among the remaining bookshelves, how many more books, in terms of b, does each of the remaining bookshelves hold?
A. b/2
B. b/10
C. b/12
D. b/20
E. b/60


OA E
Attachments
10n.jpg
The mind is everything. What you think you become. -Lord Buddha



Sanjeev K Saxena
Quantitative Instructor
The Princeton Review - Manya Abroad
Lucknow-226001

www.manyagroup.com
Top
Source: — Problem Solving |

GMAT/MBA Expert

User avatar
GMAT Instructor
Posts: 16207
Joined: Mon Dec 08, 2008 6:26 pm
Location: Vancouver, BC
Thanked: 5254 times
Followed by:1268 members
GMAT Score:770

Re: the bookshelves break

by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Wed May 06, 2009 8:26 am
sanju09 wrote:A total of b books are divided evenly among 12 bookshelves. If 2 of the bookshelves break, and the books are divided evenly among the remaining bookshelves, how many more books, in terms of b, does each of the remaining bookshelves hold?
A. b/2
B. b/10
C. b/12
D. b/20
E. b/60


OA E
The quickest way to solve this is to assign a "nice" value to b.
By "nice" I mean a number that we can divide by 12 and by 10.
One such number is 60 (although 120 and other numbers would work as well)
If b=60, then each of the 12 shelves will hold 5 books each.
When 2 shelves break, the 60 books are distributed among 10 shelves, so each shelf holds 6 books.
There is 1 extra book per shelf.
Now plug b=60 into each answer choice and see which one yields 1
Since E gives us 60/60 = 1, it is the correct answer.
Brent Hanneson - Creator of GMATPrepNow.com
Image
Top
Post new topic Post Reply
• Page 1 of 1