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# The price of a product is $a. Bill bought s products and  Question banks Downloads My Bookmarks Reviews Important topics Author Message Manager Joined: 31 Dec 2003 Posts: 214 Location: US Followers: 0 Kudos [?]: 16 [0], given: 0 The price of a product is$a. Bill bought s products and [#permalink]  01 Sep 2004, 08:23
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10. The price of a product is $a. Bill bought s products and then sold 80 percents of them$b. which of the following represents the whole deal if Billâ€™s profit was three times the cost?

(a) 0.8sb = 4sa.
(b) (1-0.8)s â€“ab = 3s.
(c) 3(0.8a â€“ sb) = sa.
(d) (s-0.8s)(b-a) = 3.
(e) (s0.8s) / (b-a) = 3.
Joined: 31 Dec 1969
Location: United States
Concentration: Strategy, Operations
GMAT 1: 710 Q49 V0
GMAT 2: 700 Q V
GMAT 3: 740 Q40 V50
GMAT 4: 700 Q48 V38
GMAT 5: 710 Q45 V41
GMAT 6: 680 Q47 V36
GPA: 3.3
WE: Sales (Investment Banking)
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Kudos [?]: 123 [0], given: 92588

Explanation:

O => Original Cost of s products @ $a/product: sa F => Final Cost of 80% s products @$b/product: 0.8sb
P => Profit Margin: Thrice the Original Cost: 2(sa)

Equation:

F-O = P
=> 0.8sb - sa = 3sa
=> 0.8sb = 4sa
Manager
Joined: 31 Dec 2003
Posts: 214
Location: US
Followers: 0

Kudos [?]: 16 [0], given: 0

Here Bill bought s nos for a$each. And he sold 80% of s nos which is 0.8s for b$.

Total SP for 0.8s nos = 0.8sb.

Now when i calculate the profit how can i take the SP for 0.8s nos and CP for s nos. Isn't that wrong.The question also doesn't mention that the remaining 20% of s nos are defective/useless. If this information has been provided then we can say that the CP will be the CP of all the s nos.

I understand that if we do it the way mentioned above only can we arrive at one of the answer choices. Any other method is not taking me to any of the answer choices.

Can anyone please clarify this for me.
Thanks.
Manager
Joined: 02 Apr 2004
Posts: 224
Location: Utrecht
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Kudos [?]: 15 [0], given: 0

I have A as answer too.

I first tried without actual numbers but got stuck a little.
Then I picked:

a = 2
b = 8
s = 100

and A gives then $640 =$640

Correct me if I am wrong.

Regards,

Alex
Manager
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 162
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Kudos [?]: 6 [0], given: 0

Re: PS - RT2 [#permalink]  01 Sep 2004, 14:17
anuramm wrote:
10. The price of a product is $a. Bill bought s products and then sold 80 percents of them$b. which of the following represents the whole deal if Billâ€™s profit was three times the cost?

(a) 0.8sb = 4sa.
(b) (1-0.8)s â€“ab = 3s.
(c) 3(0.8a â€“ sb) = sa.
(d) (s-0.8s)(b-a) = 3.
(e) (s0.8s) / (b-a) = 3.

I have a bit hard time to get the question right. There are 2 blindpoints that are confusing me:

1. Bill bought s products and then sold 80 percents of "s products" $b. Does this mean each unit is sold for$b or total amount of the selling of this 80% s products $b? 2. "...if Bill's profit is three times the cost", does this mean three times the cost of all s units of this product or three times the cost of 80% of this product? Let's say each unit is sold for$b, and it is three times the cost of that 80% units

Initially Bill bought s units of this particular item for $a each, so total cost of all units is "a*s". Bill sold 80% of these units, and the cost for these 80% units is "0.8*a*s". He sold each unit for$b per pcs, and he sold 80% of them; so the total selling price for this 80% is "0.8*s*b".

Total profit is revenue - cost = 0.8sb-0.8as. This profit is three times the cost of all s units.

So 0.8sb-0.8as=3*0.8as, 0.8sb-0.8as=2.4as, 0.8sb=2.4as

and there is no matching answer.

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