What is 35 percent of a^b?

Target question: What is 35 percent of a^b?

Statement 1: b is 200 percent of a
We can write: b = 2a
This tells us nothing about the value of b or a (which is needed to determine the value of a^b
Since we cannot answer the target question with certainty, statement 1 is NOT SUFFICIENT

Statement 2: 50 percent of b is a
We can write: 0.5b = a
Multiply both sides by 2 to get: b = 2a
Hold on!!
This is the exact same equation we got for statement 1.
Since statement 1 is not sufficient, we can be certain that statement 2 is NOT SUFFICIENT

Statements 1 and 2 combined
In circumstances when the two statements provide the EXACT SAME information, the correct answer is either D or E.
Since the two statements alone are not sufficient, it must be the case that the combined statements are NOT SUFFICIENT

Answer: E

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