Yes, for statement 2 to be sufficient you needed to have 2 pieces of information:

1. Area of the tabletop
2. Area of the glass face parallel to the tabletop. If you are given "area" of a side of a cuboid , this area can belong to any of the 6 surface areas. This is the reason why even when you combine the 2 statements , you still do not have an unambiguous yes or no
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Hi guys!

To me, this question got me on this part of Statement 2: "The area of one side of the sheet of glass..." it really confused me, but once I imagined the sheet of glass as one 3D plate, with a thin layer as its height, and 3 surface areas (side areas) it was clear that the statement was referring to the surface area of one side, and that on the bottom line it was not sufficient since we don't have any info about the tabletop to compare with.

Am I right here ?

Thanks everyone![/quote]

Yes, for statement 2 to be sufficient you needed to have 2 pieces of information:

1. Area of the tabletop
2. Area of the glass face parallel to the tabletop. If you are given "area" of a side of a cuboid , this area can belong to any of the 6 surface areas. This is the reason why even when you combine the 2 statements , you still do not have an unambiguous yes or no[/quote]

Nice, thanks.
Interpretation got me good on this one!

Hi soh_acca,

You posted this question in some other forum also, so copying my response.
Also, as a general rule, search a question on GMAT Club before posting it again.

Statement 1 is not sufficient because we do not have any information about the sheet
Statement 2 is not sufficient because we do not have any information about the table top

Combining the both, we do not have any information about the orientation of the sheet.

Hence both statements combined can also not answer the question

Hence option E

We need to determine whether a rectangular sheet of glass can cover an entire rectangular tabletop. We are given that the edges must be parallel to the table top; however, we know neither the dimensions of the sheet of glass nor the dimensions of the tabletop.

Statement One Alone:

The tabletop is 36 inches wide by 60 inches long.

Since we do not have any information about the dimensions of the rectangular sheet of glass, statement one alone is not sufficient to answer the question. We can eliminate answer choices A and D.

Statement Two Alone:

The area of one side of the sheet of glass is 2,400 square inches.

Since we do not have any information about the dimensions of the tabletop, statement two alone is not sufficient to answer the question. We can eliminate answer choice B.

Statements One and Two Together:

Using the information from statements one and two we know the following:

1) The tabletop is 36 inches wide by 60 inches long.

2) The area of one side of the sheet of glass is 2,400 square inches.

While initially we may think we have enough information to solve the problem, we actually do not, because we do not know the exact dimensions of the sheet of glass.

With an area of 2,400 square inches, we can have different lengths and widths of the sheet of glass. Some of these lengths and widths will allow the sheet to cover the table, while others will not. Let’s consider two cases.

Case # 1

Width of glass = 24 inches

Length of glass = 100 inches

Width of table = 36 inches

Length of table = 60 inches

We see that the width of the glass is shorter than the width of the table, so in case #1, the sheet of glass does not cover the entire table top.

Case # 2

Width of glass = 40 inches

Length of glass = 60 inches

Width of table = 36 inches

Length of table = 60 inches

We see that the width of the glass is longer than the width of the table and the length of the glass is equal to the length of the table, so in case #2, the sheet of glass does cover the entire table top.

The answer is E.
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Statement A: insufficient
No information about sheet of glass.

Option B: insufficient
No information about table top.

Combining: area of table top A= 36*60
Area of sheet of glass B= 2400.

But that can be 1*2400
2*1200
Or 40*60.
So it can or can not cover the table top.
Not sure.

Correct ans. E

Hit kudos if you like it

Sent from my MotoG3 using GMAT Club Forum mobile app

hi Bunuel shashankism Engr2012

In this Q, had statement 2 been The area of one side of the sheet of glass is 2,400 square inches
then only st 2 would have been sufficient?

Also in original st2, the phrase one side is just meant for confusion, I guess area be L*B . Am I correct?
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what does it mean when the question says " its edges are parallel to the edges of the tabletop"?

Does it mean that glass sheet has to be bigger than table so that it covers entire tabletop and its edges will be parallel to the edges of tabletop.

Hi All,

We're asked if a certain rectangular sheet of glass can be positioned on a rectangular tabletop so that it covers the entire tabletop and its edges are parallel to the edges of the tabletop. This is a YES/NO question. To answer it, we'll need specific information about the size of the sheet and the size of the tabletop.

1) The tabletop is 36 inches wide by 60 inches long.

Fact 1 gives us the dimensions of the tabletop, but we don't know anything about the dimensions of the sheet.
Fact 1 is INSUFFICIENT

2) The area of one side of the sheet of glass is 2,400 square inches.

Fact 2 gives us the AREA of the sheet, but NOT its specific dimensions - and we don't know the dimensions of the table. The dimensions of the sheet could be a variety of different combinations, including....
40 inches by 60 inches
30 inches by 80 inches
1 inch by 2400 inches
Etc.
Fact 2 is INSUFFICIENT

Combined, we know:
The tabletop is 36 inches by 60 inches.
The AREA of the sheet is 2400 square inches.
IF.... the dimensions of the sheet are:
40 inches by 60 inches... then the answer to the question would be YES.
30 inches by 80 inches... then the answer to the question would be NO.
Combined, INSUFFICIENT.

Final Answer:

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
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Bunuel
I have a doubt here: If we take 30*80 , it will not cover the entire tabletop .
if we take 60*40 , it will cover the entire top but it's edges won't be parallel to that of tabletop
Hence the answer should be C instead of E .

Please correct me if I missed any point.

For 30*80, case the answer to the question is NO.
For 40*60, case the answer to the question is YES.

In a Yes/No Data Sufficiency questions, statement(s) is sufficient if the answer is “always yes” or “always no” while a statement(s) is insufficient if the answer is "sometimes yes" and "sometimes no".

P.S. When a DS question asks about the value of some variable, then the statement(s) is sufficient ONLY if you can get the single numerical value of this variable.
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For 40*60 the answer to the question should be NO as it won't be parallel to that of tabletop
It will cover the tabletop but it won't be parallel so shouldn't it be NO?

Two sides of the glass will coincide the two sides of the tabletop, but we can consider this to be parallel.

Else you can consider other dimensions of the glass, for example, 2400/61 =~39,... by 61.
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Dear All,

My question is why are we skipping over the part "Glass sheet edges Parallel to the edges of the table top''?????

Its clear from (1) and (2) that no matter of what combination of edge dimensions for 2400 square inches (60,40)
or (100,24) etc, it will never be (36,60) and hence the edges of Glass Sheet will NEVER be parallel to the edges of the Table top, and hence the Answer would be 'C' since we can clearly state that from (1) and (2) we can never get a the edges parallel.

Kindly advise

Hi RB95,

I think that you may have misinterpreted the meaning of the information that this prompt gives us to work with. As an example, draw two parallel lines... Did you draw the second line exactly "on top" of the first line? You probably did not - because that is NOT what "parallel" means. We're asked if the glass sheet covers the entire table-top AND the edges of the sheet are parallel with the edges of the table. That is NOT the same as asking "does the glass sheet have the same dimensions as the table-top."

You might consider a 3x3 glass sheet and a 2x2 table-top. The sheet would cover the entire table-top and you could arrange the sheet so that the 4 edges of the sheet were parallel to the 4 edges of the table-top (each edge of the sheet would just be 1/2 an inch away from each edge of the table).

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
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Can anyone confirm if my process was correct or not?

1) gave us the measures of the tabletop and consequently the area but not information regarding the glass sheet so Not Sufficient.

2)gave to has the Area of one side of the glass sheet. So the glass sheet is a 3d figure. From the area, we do not know which side is 2400 and consequently, we cannot calculate if is wxl or hxl or hxw 2400. So the second one is Not Sufficient.

1+2) We still do not have additional information on which side is 2400 so Not Sufficient.

Hi Bunuel,

My question is what if the second statement provided information about the exact dimensions of the rectangular sheet of glass say “one side of the sheet of glass is 24 inches wide and 55 inches long”. Would the answer be C then? I feel it would still be E since we still don’t know whether the edges of the glass are parallel to the edges of the tabletop and none of the statements provide information about that.
Or is it that the rectangular piece of glass automatically means that the vertical edges are going to be 90 degrees and thus parallel to the tabletop? And hence the answer would be C.

Thanks,
Udit

The answer would be C. We'd be able to give a NO answer to the question. 24*55 sheet of glass cannot cover the entire tabletop which is 36*60.

C would be the answer too, if (2) were: The sheet of glass is 40 inches wide by 60 inches long. In this case, we COULD position the sheet of glass, so that it covers the entire tabletop and its edges are parallel to the edges of the tabletop. So, the answer to the question would be YES, we CAN position the sheet of glass, so that it covers the entire tabletop and its edges are parallel to the edges of the tabletop
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Thanks Bunuel,
I understand your logic about the glass covering the table.
However, my doubt is related to whether the edges of the glass are parallel to the edges of the tabletop portion of the question stem. Since it is a rectangular sheet of glass, do we have to assume that all its verticle edges would be 90 degrees? Meaning a rectangular box or a rectangular sheet would by default have their edges parallel to a rectangular tabletop?

Thanks,
Udit

I think you are misunderstanding the question. The question asks: CAN a certain rectangular sheet of glass be positioned ... (So, whether it is possible) 40 by 60 sheet of glass CAN be positioned the way we want.
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