Question: Toasters, Kettles and Blenders

Comment on Toasters, Kettles and Blenders

How is the kettle the least expensive
greenlight-admin's picture

Good question.

Notice that I say "Since kettles APPEAR to be the least expensive"
I say this because we cannot be 100% certain that kettles are the least expensive.

That said, we certainly know that toasters aren't the least expensive. So, we know that either kettles or blenders are the least expensive.

We're told that a blender costs $3 less than twice the price of a kettle.

IF it were the case that a blender costs twice the price of a kettle, then we'd be certain that kettles are the least expensive.

However, once we add in the part that says "a blender costs $3 LESS THAN twice the price of a kettle," we cannot be 100% certain that kettles are the least expensive.

Keep in mind that we aren't required to assign the variable to the smallest value.
The main reason to assign the variable to the smallest value is that this typically makes it easier to assign the other variables.

We could assign the variable to ANY of the 3 prices, and we'd still get the correct answer.

Cheers,
Brent

Hi Brent,

Great post, I think we have an easier solution as well:

Let B = cost of blender
T= cost of toast
K = cost of kettle

T = 3 + 2B = QB

B = 2K -3
We can multiply the second equation with 2 to reach the price of 4 kettles
2B = 4K -6
from here we know 4K = 2B + 6 = QA

QB = T = 3 +2B
QA = 2B +6
From here we can see that QA>QB



greenlight-admin's picture

That's a great approach.
Nice work!

Hi ,
I had approached with numbers.

consider 1 kettle cost =100

blender=2(kettle)-3$
=200-3=197
toaster=2(blenser)+3$
=2*197+3=397

Qa-> 4 kettles cost= 400
Qb-> 1 toaster cost=397

therefore Qa > Qb

Thanks
greenlight-admin's picture

The correct answer is, indeed A, however testing only one set of values can get you into trouble with QC questions.

The problem with the plugging in numbers approach is that testing two sets of values is not enough to answer the question conclusively, UNLESS they yield two different results.

For more on this, start watching at 2:50 of the following video: https://www.greenlighttestprep.com/module/gre-quantitative-comparison/vi...

Cheers,
Brent

In addition for that,
T=3+2b
B=2k-3
Let B=100
T=203
K= 51.50
The cost of 4k = 206
and the cost of 1t=203
A>B
greenlight-admin's picture

The correct answer is indeed A.
However, I would be wary of testing just ONE value, as you did in your solution.
Testing ONE possible value will not yield a definitive answer on Quantitative Comparison questions
I cover this at 2:50 in the following video: https://www.greenlighttestprep.com/module/gre-quantitative-comparison/vi...

Doesn’t this question depend on the price of toaster or kettle? I got T = 4K - 3 … if K costs $1 then T = 4(1) - 3 = 1, 4K = 4…thus A… But if K costs $10 then T = 4 (10) - 3 = 37…so 4K = 40…thus A.
greenlight-admin's picture

We have:
QUANTITY A: 4k
QUANTITY B: 4k - 3

If k = 1, we get:
QUANTITY A: 4k = 4(1) = 4
QUANTITY B: 4k - 3 = 4(1) - 3 = 1
Quantity A is greater.

If k = 10, we get:
QUANTITY A: 4k = 4(10) = 40
QUANTITY B: 4k - 3 = 4(10) - 3 = 37
Quantity A is still greater.

In fact, Quantity A will be greater than Quantity B for all values of k.

Does that help?

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