Work Rate Question

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gvosough: Junior | Next Rank: 30 Posts; Posts: 19; Joined: Wed Apr 28, 2010 9:42 am

by gvosough » Sun Jul 04, 2010 10:21 pm

In the Porter Toy company, the average time required for each of the n production workers to assemble a trainset is t minutes. If all the workers work fulltime how many hours of plant operations will be required to fill an order for 5000 of these train sets?
A) 5000t/60n
B)5000(60)/nt
C)5000nt/60
D)5000(60n)/t
E)60nt/5000

OA: A

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Problem Solving | Sun Jul 04, 2010 10:21 pm

papgust: Community Manager; Posts: 1537; Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2009 6:10 pmFollowed by: 252 members; Thanked: 653 times

by papgust » Sun Jul 04, 2010 10:30 pm

You could use basic logic here instead of going for calculations.

Firstly, the given time taken to assemble a trainset is t minutes. Question asks for the total time in hours. So, you need to divide by 60 and not multiply by 60. Eliminate B, D, and E.

We need to choose b/w A and C. If only 1 worker assembles 5000 trainsets, the total time taken will be 5000*t/60 hrs. If there are n workers, then divide 5000*t/60 hrs by n. It's 5000*t / 60*n hours.

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saurabhmahajan: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 250; Joined: Thu Jan 07, 2010 2:21 am; Thanked: 10 times

by saurabhmahajan » Mon Jul 05, 2010 1:14 am

one doubt.

the problem says about average time.so the total time to assemble one trainset will be nt.so assembling 5000 sets would be 5000nt.
assume 10 people require average 5 min to assemble one set then total time required is 50 min.so 5000 sets would be 5000*50....right?

and sinced asked in hour so divide by 60

therefore i went for option 5000nt/60.

Please correct me.

Thanks and regards,
Saurabh Mahajan

I can understand you not winning,but i will not forgive you for not trying.

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4GMAT_Mumbai: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 161; Joined: Mon Apr 05, 2010 9:06 am; Location: Mumbai; Thanked: 37 times

by 4GMAT_Mumbai » Mon Jul 05, 2010 1:19 am

saurabhmahajan wrote:one doubt.

the problem says about average time.so the total time to assemble one trainset will be nt.

Please correct me.

Hi,

I am afraid the flaw lies in this initial assumption. If there are 3 people who take an average of 5 minutes each to construct a train set, will we say that the total time to assemble one train set is 5 * 3 = 15 minutes ? Hence, the expression nt does not make much sense.

Hope this helps. Thanks.

Naveenan Ramachandran
4GMAT, Dadar(W) & Ghatkopar(W), Mumbai

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