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805+ (Hard)|   Math Related|         
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guddo
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An inventory of a neighborhood's trees found that 32 percent were 31 Jan 2026, 10:03
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Puranjaysapra
Thanks for responding. If I was to use the same logic, I also don't know the exact % of D trees as it says most of it implying that it could be anything less than 68%. I can determine that conifers will be more than spruces


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“Most deciduous” being vague does not matter, because the ratio uses only the deciduous group:

Japanese maples = 20% of (1/8 of deciduous) = 1/40 of deciduous, so the ratio is fixed.

For spruces vs conifers, total conifers is unknown (spruces + pines + unknown cedars/others), so 258 divided by total conifers is not fixed, even though conifers > spruces.

I'd advice checking for complete solutions these posts:

  1. https://gmatclub.com/forum/an-inventory ... l#p3373108
  2. https://gmatclub.com/forum/an-inventory ... l#p3368922
  3. https://gmatclub.com/forum/an-inventory ... l#p3362649
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Puranjaysapra
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An inventory of a neighborhood's trees found that 32 percent were 31 Jan 2026, 10:06
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Understood, Thank you! This is helpful
guddo


“Most deciduous” being vague does not matter, because the ratio uses only the deciduous group:

Japanese maples = 20% of (1/8 of deciduous) = 1/40 of deciduous, so the ratio is fixed.

For spruces vs conifers, total conifers is unknown (spruces + pines + unknown cedars/others), so 258 divided by total conifers is not fixed, even though conifers > spruces.

I'd advice checking for complete solutions these posts:

  1. https://gmatclub.com/forum/an-inventory ... l#p3373108
  2. https://gmatclub.com/forum/an-inventory ... l#p3368922
  3. https://gmatclub.com/forum/an-inventory ... l#p3362649
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An inventory of a neighborhood's trees found that 32 percent were 02 Feb 2026, 06:07
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Conifer = 32%
Deciduous can be maximum ~68% (let it be 68%)
1/8 are Maple = ~8.5%
20% of Maple are Japanese Maple = ~1.7%

We are sure that conifers are 32% and Japanese Maple can be max 1.7%, so why it may not be Japanese Maple and Conifers?
We are not sure of deciduous also, it can be anywhere between a little more than 34% to almost 68%.

Can someone pls explain?
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An inventory of a neighborhood's trees found that 32 percent were 13 Feb 2026, 02:35
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wouldn't conifers be more than spruces hence their ratio will be less than 1 despite of not knowing total of conifers we do know it is greater than spruces ?
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An inventory of a neighborhood's trees found that 32 percent were 13 Feb 2026, 04:22
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1111fate
wouldn't conifers be more than spruces hence their ratio will be less than 1 despite of not knowing total of conifers we do know it is greater than spruces ?
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No.

To select a valid pair, the ratio must be numerically determined, not just known to be less than 1.

It’s true that Conifers > Spruces, so Spruces/Conifers is less than 1. But we do not know how many cedars and other conifers there are, so we cannot compute the exact ratio.

Since the problem requires that the ratio “can be determined,” simply knowing it’s less than 1 is not enough.
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An inventory of a neighborhood's trees found that 32 percent were 13 Feb 2026, 04:32
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forestmayank
Conifer = 32%
Deciduous can be maximum ~68% (let it be 68%)
1/8 are Maple = ~8.5%
20% of Maple are Japanese Maple = ~1.7%

We are sure that conifers are 32% and Japanese Maple can be max 1.7%, so why it may not be Japanese Maple and Conifers?
We are not sure of deciduous also, it can be anywhere between a little more than 34% to almost 68%.

Can someone pls explain?
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Your calculation shows only a maximum. That’s the issue.

Conifers are fixed at 32% of all trees.

Japanese maples are 20% of maples, and maples are 1/8 of deciduous, so Japanese maples = 1/5 * 1/8 of deciduous = 1/40 of deciduous.

But deciduous is not fixed as a percent of all trees. It can be anywhere from just over 34% up to 68%. So Japanese maples as a percent of all trees can be anywhere from just over 34%/40 to 68%/40, i.e. just over 0.85% up to 1.7%.

Therefore Japanese maples/Conifers is not a single value. It could be just over 0.85/32 or it could be 1.7/32 or anything in between. The problem requires the ratio to be determinable (one exact number), not just bounded.
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An inventory of a neighborhood's trees found that 32 percent were 13 Feb 2026, 05:23
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Thanks Bunuel It's clear now :)
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An inventory of a neighborhood's trees found that 32 percent were 22 Aug 2026, 11:53
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Want to find a ratio that can be found using the answers provided and is less than 1.
I think it's easier to look at the options and eliminate obvious ones that use language like "most" and "some" because it will eliminate the host group as an option.

The two answers that give exact ratios are the maples-to-deciduous which =1/8 and the Japanese maple-to-deciduous which is 1/5.
The question wants to us to tell it the proper ratio and since the Japanese maples are a sub group of deciduous, they obviously are less than the deciduous group as a whole.
A:B=A/B<1, A= Japanese maple, B= Deciduous
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­An inventory of a neighborhood's trees found that 32 percent were conifers and most of the rest were deciduous. Among the conifers were 258 spruces and 112 pines, along with some cedars and other species. Most of the deciduous trees were oaks, but one in eight was a maple. Of the oaks, 65 percent were red oaks and 25 percent were white oaks. Of the maples, 20 percent were Japanese maples.

Select for A and for B two types of trees such that the ratio of the number of trees of the type selected for A to the number of trees of the type selected for B can be determined and is less than 1. Make only two selections, one in each column.­
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