If r and s are non-negative, what is the ratio of r to s?

Question

(1) r is 60 percent of s.

(2) r is 42 less than s

anulfc · Answer

Bunuel 
What if r and s are 0?
Shouldn't the answer be C?

Harley1980 · Answer

Hello  AnubhavRao 
to calculate percent r from s we shoud divide r on s

If r = 0 than r will be 0% from any number: 0/any number = 0
If s = 0 than we can't calculate percents from this number because dividing on 0 forbidden

So 1 statement is sufficient and Answer is A

sureshhbs · Answer

If r= 60% of s= 3/5 s

r/s= 3/5s/s= 3/5

Isnt this possible ?

Harley1980 · Answer

Hello  saharshbagaria 
r doesn't equal to 60%
r is 60% from s but value of r doesn't changes from this fact

for example r = 120 and s = 200 
than r/s = 120/200 = 3/5 = 60%

sureshhbs · Answer

Yes i wrote 60% of s only.

As you said r/s is 60%, and if we take r=0 the ratio turns out to be 0. So we can have many answers right?

Harley1980 · Answer

if we take r=0 than r can't be 60% from s in any case.

Let's take example with cake: we have 8 pieces of cake
2 pieces of cake is 25%
4 pieces of cake is 50%
0 pieces of cake is how many percents of cake?

sureshhbs · Answer

I think we should ignore the 0 part because if we take either of them 0,the denominator will be 0 and that is not possible to find out.

GMATinsight · Answer

This is not the right Reasoning to ignore r=0 as possible case

The correct reasoning is

"Since, r is 60% of s therefore r can't be zero because if r=0 then swill also be zero and then r will no more be 60% of s"

OptimusPrepJanielle · Answer

If r and s are non-negative, what is the ratio of r to s?
 What is r/s)? 
(1) r is 60 percent of s.
r = (60/100) s = > r/s can be determined. Sufficient.
(2) r is 42 less than s
r = s - 42 => r/s cannot be determined. Not sufficient.
 A

IanStewart · Answer

This is a badly worded question. The question absolutely needs to tell you that r and s are positive here, or else it makes no sense. When you look at Statement 1, can r and s be zero? As a pure technicality, 0 is indeed 60% of 0. But at the same time, it makes very little to sense to say "0 is exactly 60% of 0", because it's also true that 0 is 1,000,000% of 0, and that 0 is 0.001% of 0. So where does the precise value of '60%' come from in this case? If you were asked "0 is what percent of 0?", no one would ever choose '60' as the answer - it's a question that has no answer at all.

Any real GMAT ratio question will always tell you in advance that your denominator is greater than zero (or if it doesn't you can safely assume it). It doesn't make sense to debate what answer is right here, because the question is simply badly designed - you can justify A or C, depending on whether you think it's legitimate to consider s=0.

If r and s are non-negative, what is the ratio of r to s?

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If r and s are non-negative, what is the ratio of r to s?

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