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Greatest absolute value?

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by rainbownlife » Wed Feb 20, 2008 9:34 pm
On a number line with 5 co-ordinates as -2,-1,0,1,2,
Which has the greatest absolute value?
A -2
B -1
C 0
D 1
E 2

I am confused. Shouldn't both A and E have same (greatest ) absolute value ? How can we choose one answer.
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Re: Greatest absolute value?

by gabriel » Wed Feb 20, 2008 9:58 pm
rainbownlife wrote:On a number line with 5 co-ordinates as -2,-1,0,1,2,
Which has the greatest absolute value?
A -2
B -1
C 0
D 1
E 2

I am confused. Shouldn't both A and E have same (greatest ) absolute value ? How can we choose one answer.
Well, it is certainly a bad question. Absolute distance is the distance from the 0 of the number line. So, yes the answer could be A or E.
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by rainbownlife » Thu Feb 21, 2008 12:58 pm
This is a question from OG 11, can it have an incorrect question in there?
Dont remember the question number but I believe its somewhere between Q 11-20.
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by Stuart@KaplanGMAT » Thu Feb 21, 2008 6:42 pm
Did the question also have a diagram?

If not, the question makes no sense at all.
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by rainbownlife » Thu Feb 21, 2008 8:54 pm
A B C D E
__________________________________
| | | | |
- 2 - 1 0 1 2


Apologise for my number line diagram above, but this is given with the question with points A B C D E equidistant from each other.

So the question says
which point A, B,C,D , E has the greatest absolute value.

(btw its question no 20 in OG edition 11)

thanks
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by rainbownlife » Thu Feb 21, 2008 8:56 pm
oh..the number line did not appear with proper formatting...
hope you got the idea. 5 points on number line marked a b c d e as -2,-1,0,1,2 respectively.
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by suman2424 » Wed Feb 27, 2008 8:19 pm
you have misinterpreted the diagram. the correct answer is a) A: -2.

point A on the line lies directly 2 spots away from 0. Point B lies just over 1 spot away, point C lies directly on 0, point D is slightly greater than one spot away, and Point E is just under 2 spots away.

Because of this we see that point A is furthest away from 0, therefore has the greatest absolute value.

I think your mistake was that you thought point E was exactly 2 away from 0, but looking at the diagram you see the arrow points to a spot on the line just before 2.

Hope that helped!
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by rainbownlife » Fri Feb 29, 2008 7:18 pm
dont really understand. :?:
i measured the diagram also...all points are equidistant


anybody ??
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by joshi.komal » Sat Mar 01, 2008 12:54 am
Hi rainbowlife,

You might have measured the markings on the numberline which are obviously same. What question is asking is the arrow pointing to a point.You will notice that arrow named E is slightly between markings 1 and 2 while the arrow named A is exactly on marking -2. Thus the point E is not exactly 2 but between 1 and 2 (1.8 approximately)
Now you can see why the answer is A and not E

Hope it helps

Thanks
Komal
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by detonate » Sat Apr 12, 2008 5:39 pm
I also have the OG 11th edition and got stumped with this question and its corresponding answer. The diagram has the arrows perfectly above the numbers on the line.

I think they messed up this question. Absolute value of -2 and 2 are the same distance from 0. I can scan the diagram if needed. E is directly above 2.
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by Musiq » Sat Apr 12, 2008 9:55 pm
I can guarantee this about the OG.

There are atleasat some editions that have the diagram drawn brutally wrong.

I can see why some you think it could be -2 or +2. I was also stumped when I saw certain editions of the book with the badly drawn diagram.

Ofcourse, there are some OG books with the correct diagram.

Detonate and Rainbownlife, you are both absolutely right, in that the diagram is wrong.
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by sampleresume » Sun Apr 13, 2008 5:21 pm
so many replies to this post.
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by k.badri » Fri Jun 13, 2008 3:37 am
check out the corrections for OG11 at the link below:

https://www.mba.com/NR/rdonlyres/B6424CF ... l82006.pdf

there is one problem on number line..probably you are referring to that.
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