daviesj wrote:
16 horses can haul a load of lumber in 24 minutes. 12 horses started hauling a load and after 14 minutes, 12 mules joined the horses. Will it take less than a quarter-hour for all of them together to finish hauling the load?
1. Mules work more slowly than horses.
2. 48 mules can haul the same load of lumber in 16 minutes.
OA after some discussion.
16 horses can haul a load of lumber in 24 minutes.
So, 12 horses can haul the load in 32 minutes
and 24 horses can haul the load in 16 minutes.
So unless the mules are faster than the horses to a certain extent (in this instance they should be mules from Krypton), it is not possible to complete the work in 15 minutes.
1) Sufficient
2)The speed of the mules is given. The statements never contradict each other. So, we do not need to do any calculations to compare it with that of the horses. This statement is sufficient.
Answer is D.
EDIT:AFTER seeing the OA, I realize that I could have misunderstood the question. If the question is asking for whether the work can be completed in an additional 15 minutes AFTER the initial 14 minutes, then I guess the working would be different.
12 horses can haul the load in 32 minutes.
So, in 14 minutes they would have hauled \(\frac{14}{32}\) of the load and the remaining is \(\frac{18}{32}\) of the load.
24 horses will be able to complete this remaining work in \(\frac{18}{32}*16\) ie 9 minutes
1) If the mules are only slightly slower than the horses, the work can be finished in under 15 minutes. If the mules are abysmally slower than the horses, it will take more than 15 minutes. Insufficent.
2) The speed of the mules is given and hence whether the work can be finished in under 15 minutes or not can be calculated. Sufficient.
Answer is B.
However, IMHO the presence of this confusion alone makes this question a poor quality one.