The straight-line distance between Town A and Town B is 15 km. Most travelers passing through the towns, however, use two highways—first traveling x km west from Town A on one highway and then traveling y km north to Town B on a different highway. The intersection of these highways is farther from Town A than Town B. Select values for x and for y that are jointly consistent with the given information. Make only two selections, one in each column. IMPORTANT : Mistake Warning ⚠️ this question has 13 As the answer choice option in the original form. It has been modified and has been changed to 12 because there’s no solution to 13. https://gmatclub.com/forum/download/file_private.php?id=75914

This is an interesting question on many levels. 1. This is a question that would be using Geometry properties to solve it. I thought there was no geometry 😬 2. I see people are trying to solve it using the Pythagorean theorem. However the question doesn’t really really say that this is a perpendicular type of a relationship so I’m not sure we can assume that. 3. There’s also a question of correct or incorrect answer choices. It’s a mess. 😂 Posted from my mobile device

The highway is East to West and then South to North. => Thus, intersection of two highways is 90 degree. A to B is 15 => The hypotenuse is 15. Solution is that we have to find the pair whose square adds up to 15^2 . Remember, a very commonly used triplet is 3:4:5 and here we have 5x as 15 or x=3 Thus, the sides are 3*3:3*4:3*5 or 9:12:15 Longer side is Town A, so 12. A=>12 B=>9 Choice E has to be 12. Just adding more data and getting this post in the beggining to substantiate why I feel 13 as an answer would open a pandora box. We could justify 13 as an answer only by one logic and that would be : The highways may not be at 90 degree, then a slight sharp angle of 83 degree would give the distances as 9-13-15. But a slightly more sharper angle of around 80 degree would give distances as 10-13-15, or a more wider angle of around of 104 degree would justify distances 9-10-13. Almost all values will get justified as 15 will have to be less than the sum of other two sides and more than the difference of the other two sides.

It should be 12 and 9, ryt? 12^2+9^2=15^2 Posted from my mobile device

This question came up on my mock 4 for the Focus Edition. I am very certain there is an error in the question... I wasted 7 minutes on it and got it wrong.

bb I think the question does imply that the two legs of the triangle are perpendicular as it states one is headed West and the other headed North - with no disclaimer otherwise, the assumption should definitely be that the roads are perfectly perpendicular.

The last line should be 12 instead of 13.

Sajjad1994 I believe the comments above are correct that the final answer choice should be 12, not 13, could you please edit the question? Thanks!

This question is clearly testing the concept of Pythagorean triples (5, 12, 13), if we are aware of it and can apply it it will take a few seconds only !!!

The last answer changed to 13. The assumption that this is a perpendicular relationship is a stretch in my view, but is the only way to solve this question ...

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