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# In a single row of yellow, green and red colored tiles

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Manager
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In a single row of yellow, green and red colored tiles [#permalink]

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14 Oct 2009, 06:18
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In a single row of yellow, green and red colored tiles, every red tile is preceded immediately by a yellow tile and every yellow tile is preceded immediately by a green tile. What color is the 24th tile in the row?

(1) The 18th tile in the row is not yellow.

(2) The 19th tile in the row is not green.
[Reveal] Spoiler: OA
Manager
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Re: Wed Q1 - Tricky Tiles [#permalink]

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14 Oct 2009, 06:28
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hogann wrote:
In a single row of yellow, green and red colored tiles, every red tile is preceded immediately by a yellow tile and every yellow tile is preceded immediately by a green tile. What color is the 24th tile in the row?

(1) The 18th tile in the row is not yellow.

(2) The 19th tile in the row is not green.

here the thing to observe is that green is not preceded by any particular tile.

1. 18th is not yellow so it may be RED or GREEN. If it is either RED or GREEN then 19th can be any colour and we cannot determine the next colour. insuff

2. 19th is not GREEN so it can be RED or YELLOW. if its RED then we do not know the colour of 20th tile and hence cannot determine colour of 24th tile.
if the 19th tile is Yellow then we know that 20th tile is RED ( as yellow precedes RED tile) but that doesn't help us to answer the colour of 24th tile
so insuff

Even if we take both then 18th is not yellow and 19th is not green we can have 18th tile as GREEN and 19th tile as YELLOW then 20th becomes RED. Still we cannot be sure of the colour of the 24th tile.

will go with E
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Re: Wed Q1 - Tricky Tiles [#permalink]

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14 Oct 2009, 07:58
Whats confusing me the word " preceded ".
Does this mean Yellow comes after Red, then Green (Red, Yellow, Green) or the other way around (Green, Yellow, Red)

(1)If 18th is not Yellow then it could be either Red or Green.
(2)If 19th is not Green then it could be Red or Yellow.

If using the (Red, Yellow, Green) then its E.
If using (Green, Yellow, Red) its C.

Can anyone help clarify " preceded " ??

Last edited by Wayxi on 14 Oct 2009, 10:01, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Wed Q1 - Tricky Tiles [#permalink]

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14 Oct 2009, 08:07
Wayxi wrote:
Whats confusing me the word " preceded ".
Does this mean Yellow comes after Red, then Green (Red, Yellow, Green) or the other way around (Green, Yellow, Red)

(1)If 18th is not Yellow then it could be either Red or Green.
(2)If 19th is not Green then it could be Red or Yellow.

If using the (Red, Yellow, Green) then its E.
If using (Green, Yellow, Red) its D.

Can anyone help clarify " preceded " ??

preceded would mean "come before" so it should be (Green, Yellow, Red). Point to be considered is Green doesn't have any particular tile "preceding" it
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Re: Wed Q1 - Tricky Tiles [#permalink]

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14 Oct 2009, 10:00
I think we can assume its a repeating pattern so it go like (Green, Yellow, Red, Green, Yellow, Red)

If the 19th tile is Red, then the 18th must be Yellow according to whats given. In statement (1) 18 is not yellow so it leave us with have the 19th tile as Yellow. The 18th follows suit as being Green, 17th Red, 20th Red, etc..

Going with C.
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Re: Wed Q1 - Tricky Tiles [#permalink]

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14 Oct 2009, 14:13
Wayxi wrote:
I think we can assume its a repeating pattern so it go like (Green, Yellow, Red, Green, Yellow, Red)

If the 19th tile is Red, then the 18th must be Yellow according to whats given. In statement (1) 18 is not yellow so it leave us with have the 19th tile as Yellow. The 18th follows suit as being Green, 17th Red, 20th Red, etc..

Going with C.

obviously we are assuming but we need to consider all possibilities and see that still the answer obtained is same in all case
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Re: Wed Q1 - Tricky Tiles [#permalink]

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14 Oct 2009, 16:57
I think its E, took me 2 full minutes. same reasoning as astermatrix, use S1 and S2,i figured 18,19,20 as G,Y,R,but
21,22,23,24 can all be Gs or R or Y
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Re: Wed Q1 - Tricky Tiles [#permalink]

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15 Oct 2009, 08:09
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OA is E

As noted the trick was realizing the tiles could be in the order of Green, Yellow, Red, Green, Yellow, Red, . . .

or Green, Yellow, Red, Green, Green, Green, Green . . .
Intern
Joined: 19 Sep 2010
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01 Oct 2010, 09:34
here's the OA
It's from a MGMAT Test

"It is tempting to view the information in the question as establishing a pattern as follows:
Green, Yellow, Red, Green, Yellow, Red, . . .
However, consider that the following non-pattern is also possible:
Green, Yellow, Red, Green, Green, Green, Green . . .
(1) INSUFFICIENT: This tells us that the 18th tile is Green or Red but this tells us nothing about the 24th tile. Statement (1) alone is NOT sufficient.
(2) INSUFFICIENT: This tells us that the 19th tile is Yellow or Red but this tells us nothing about the 24th tile. Statement (2) alone is NOT sufficient.
(1) AND (2) INSUFFICIENT: Together, the statements yield the following possibilities for the 18th and 19th tiles:
GY, GR, RY, or RR
However, only GY adheres to the rules given in the question. Thus, we know that tile 18 is green and tile 19 is yellow. However, this does not help us to determine the color of the next tile, much less tile 24 (the one asked in the question). For example, the next tile (tile 20) could be green or red. Thus, the statements taken together are still not sufficient.

But if we know that 19 is Yellow , then the nxt one will be red right ? What am I missing ?
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01 Oct 2010, 09:58
Barkatis wrote:
In a single row of yellow, green and red colored tiles, every red tile is preceded immediately by a yellow tile and every yellow tile is preceded immediately by a green tile. What color is the 24th tile in the row?
(1) The 18th tile in the row is not yellow.
(2) The 19th tile in the row is not green.

I don't get why it's not C.

This is a tough question, I remember getting this in a MGMAT test and took me more than 3 minutes to think about it then. Let me break down my thought pattern :

What do we know ?
Y,G,R tiles
Whenever there is R, Y preceeds it and whenever there is Y, G preceeds it.
So if there is a R somewhere, it will always have a GYR pattern

What do we need to find out ?
Color of tile 24

Reasoning

(1) Tile 18 is not yellow.
This means tile 18 is either green or it is red.
Now it is easy to claim to different patterns which do not violate the rules :

18 ..... 24
RGGGGGG
RGGGGYR

So clearly not enough

(2) Tile 19 is not green
This means tile 19 can be red or yellow.
Consider the following patterns :

19 .... 24
RGGGGG
RGGGYR

So again not enough

(1+2) Now we know 18 is either G or R and 19 is either R or Y

18 ..... 24
GYRGGGG
GYRGGYR

Again very easy to form two patterns with different colors at 24

What was the basic principle I used ?
That the defining rules only specify restrictions looking right to left (preceeding tiles) for Y and R. So there is no restrictions on G either looking back or looking forward.

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06 Jul 2011, 14:36
the stimulus of the question yeilds this sequence : GYR as the only possibility.

now st1) a18 is not Y ie a18 = G/R => two possibilities =>we cant construct a definitie sequence => not suff

st2) a19 is not G ie a18 = Y/R => two possibilities =>we cant construct a definitie sequence => not suff

take both statements together
possibility 1 : a18, a19 = R G
possibility 2 : a18, a19 = G Y
=> two possibilities => no definite sequence can be constructed => not sufficient

Ans E

Hope my explanation helped.
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06 Jul 2011, 22:47
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Expert's post
mojorising800 wrote:
In a single row of yellow, green and red colored tiles, every red tile is preceded immediately by a yellow tile and every yellow tile is preceded immediately by a green tile. What color is the 24th tile in the row?

(1) The 18th tile in the row is not yellow.

(2) The 19th tile in the row is not green.

If we have a red tile, it will be in this sequence only: GYR
If we have a yellow tile, it will be in this sequence: GY
There are no restrictions for Green tiles.

The data in the two statements seems to be very little since data is about 18th and 19th tiles while question asks about 24th tile. The required sequences are just 2/3 tiles long. Plus, the constraints are on the preceding tiles, not the following tiles. So in such situations, when the data seems sparse, I often check both conditions together to see whether even that is possible.
18th tile - G/R
19th tile - Y/R
But the 19th tile cannot be Red since we cannot have Yellow on the 18th tile. So 19th tile must be Yellow and 18th tile must be Green.
Now, all tiles from 20th to 24th could be any of the following:
GGGGG
GGGGY
GGYGY
GGGYR
RGGYR
etc
Hence (E).

It is a very vague question. Had it been given that tiles of the same color cannot be next to each other of something like that, then it would have been more interesting.
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Get started with Veritas Prep GMAT On Demand for $199 Veritas Prep Reviews Manager Joined: 27 Oct 2011 Posts: 186 Location: United States Concentration: Finance, Strategy GPA: 3.7 WE: Account Management (Consumer Products) Re: In a single row of yellow, green and red colored tiles, [#permalink] ### Show Tags 25 Mar 2012, 17:34 It is tempting to view the information in the question as establishing a pattern as follows: Green, Yellow, Red, Green, Yellow, Red, . . . However, consider that the following non-pattern is also possible: Green, Yellow, Red, Green, Green . . . _________________ DETERMINED TO BREAK 700!!! Manager Status: struggling with GMAT Joined: 06 Dec 2012 Posts: 213 Location: Bangladesh Concentration: Accounting GMAT Date: 04-06-2013 GPA: 3.65 In a single row of yellow, green and red colored tiles [#permalink] ### Show Tags 01 Mar 2013, 11:20 1 This post received KUDOS 2 This post was BOOKMARKED In a single row of yellow, green and red colored tiles, every red tile is preceded immediately by a yellow tile and every yellow tile is preceded immediately by a green tile. What color is the 24th tile in the row? (1) The 18th tile in the row is not yellow. (2) The 19th tile in the row is not green. Manager Joined: 12 Jul 2011 Posts: 128 Concentration: Strategy, Sustainability Schools: Booth '15 (M) WE: Business Development (Non-Profit and Government) Re: In a single row of yellow, green and red colored tiles [#permalink] ### Show Tags 01 Mar 2013, 11:29 We don't know what precedes green tiles. It could be anything, which means that green can follow tiles of any color. Also, it's worth mentioning that green can be followed by any color tile, not only yellow, because the rule about yellow tiles being preceded by green tiles doesn't preclude the possibility of other tiles also being preceded by green tiles. In short, we could have a whole string of green tiles between the 18th and 24th tiles. _________________ Intern Joined: 27 Feb 2013 Posts: 2 GMAT 1: 670 Q50 V30 Re: In a single row of yellow, green and red colored tiles [#permalink] ### Show Tags 09 Mar 2013, 11:02 1 This post received KUDOS Consider stmt 1: 18th tile is not yellow. Therefore, it should be green/red (given: there are only 3 colors). If we have green color on 18th tile, then the order is: 18th - green (G) 19th - yellow (Y) 20th - red (R) 21th - G 22nd - Y 23rd - R 24th - G Ans: Green Similarly, if we consider 18th tile to be of red color, then we get 24th tile to be of red color. Hence Stmt 1 is not sufficient Now, consider Stmt 2. 19th tile should be Y/R color. If we take Y, then 24th tile is G and if we take R, then 24th tile is Y. Hence, stmt 2 is not sufficient. If we consider both stmts together, then 18th tile should be G and 19th should be Y which gives the answer as G. Therefore, neither of the stmts alone is sufficient but both when used together are sufficient. Manager Joined: 25 Jun 2012 Posts: 71 Location: India WE: General Management (Energy and Utilities) Re: In a single row of yellow, green and red colored tiles [#permalink] ### Show Tags 14 Mar 2013, 03:43 revanthnov wrote: Consider stmt 1: 18th tile is not yellow. Therefore, it should be green/red (given: there are only 3 colors). If we have green color on 18th tile, then the order is: 18th - green (G) 19th - yellow (Y) 20th - red (R) 21th - G 22nd - Y 23rd - R 24th - G Ans: Green Similarly, if we consider 18th tile to be of red color, then we get 24th tile to be of red color. Hence Stmt 1 is not sufficient Now, consider Stmt 2. 19th tile should be Y/R color. If we take Y, then 24th tile is G and if we take R, then 24th tile is Y. Hence, stmt 2 is not sufficient. If we consider both stmts together, then 18th tile should be G and 19th should be Y which gives the answer as G. Therefore, neither of the stmts alone is sufficient but both when used together are sufficient. If we consider both statement togather, then according to st-1 - 18th tile could be Red or Green. Not clear and as per st-2, 19th tile could be Red or Yellow. 18th tile - R or G 19th tile - R or Y 20th tile - can not decide, SO E Veritas Prep GMAT Instructor Joined: 16 Oct 2010 Posts: 7440 Location: Pune, India Re: In a single row of yellow, green and red colored tiles [#permalink] ### Show Tags 14 Mar 2013, 21:37 mun23 wrote: In a single row of yellow, green and red colored tiles, every red tile is preceded immediately by a yellow tile and every yellow tile is preceded immediately by a green tile. What color is the 24th tile in the row? (1) The 18th tile in the row is not yellow. (2) The 19th tile in the row is not green. In questions such as these, some structured reasoning helps out. Write down little tit-bits of information to get a clear picture and avoid confusion. Say, if see a Red tile, I will see YR together. Similarly, if I see a Yellow, I will see GY together. Updating - if I see Red, I will see GYR So take a moment to think what the row could look like before jumping on to the statements: GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGYR or GYGYGYGGYGYGGGGGGGGGYRGGGG or GYRGGGGGYGGGGGYGGGGGGGYRGGG etc That is, there are no constraints on G. Before a Y, I will see a G and Before an R, I will see GY. Now look at the statements: (1) The 18th tile in the row is not yellow. So 18th tile is G or R. There are no constraints on what will come AFTER G or R so we cannot decide the color of 24th tile. 18th to 24th tiles could look like this: GGGGGGG or GYGYGYR etc (2) The 19th tile in the row is not green. So 19th tile is Y or R. Again, there are no constraints on what will come AFTER Y or R so we cannot decide the color of 24th tile. 18th to 24th tiles could look like this: GYGGGGG or GYGYGYR etc Taking both together, if 19th tile is R, 18th tile must be Y but it cannot be according to statement 1 so 19th tile must be Y and 18th tile must be G. But still, do we have any constraints on the 24th tile? We can have any tile after the 19th Y tile - R or G. 18th to 24th tiles could look like this: GYGGGGG or GYGYGYR etc Answer (E) _________________ Karishma Veritas Prep | GMAT Instructor My Blog Get started with Veritas Prep GMAT On Demand for$199

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Re: In a single row of yellow, green and red colored tiles [#permalink]

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31 May 2015, 08:32
hogann wrote:
In a single row of yellow, green and red colored tiles, every red tile is preceded immediately by a yellow tile and every yellow tile is preceded immediately by a green tile. What color is the 24th tile in the row?

(1) The 18th tile in the row is not yellow.

(2) The 19th tile in the row is not green.

Can anyone help with this?
I marked the answer as C.
Why we are not taking the sequence-(G,Y,R)
HERE "EVERY" word is mentioned?
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Re: In a single row of yellow, green and red colored tiles [#permalink]

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31 May 2015, 13:52
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Expert's post
Hi All,

This question is more complex than a typical "sequence" question that you'll see on Test Day. The information at the beginning of the prompt is "causal" but only deals with tiles that PRECEDE other tiles; we have to deduce what tiles can FOLLOW other tiles. We know what comes immediately before a red (a yellow) and we know what comes immediately before a yellow (a green), but we're not told what comes before a green.

Up-Front Deductions:
A Green can be followed by another Green or a Yellow (but not a Red)
A Yellow can be followed by a Green or a Red (but not a Yellow)
A Red can be followed by a Green (but not a Yellow or Red)

We're asked for the 24th Tile....

Fact 1: 18th = NOT Yellow

This Fact tells us that the 18th = Green OR Red

IF....
18th = Red
We would have G, G, G, G, G to infinity, so the 24th Tile = GREEN

IF
18th = Green
We COULD have G, G, G, G, G, Y, so the 24th Tile = YELLOW
Fact 1 is INSUFFICIENT

Fact 2: 19th is NOT Green

This Fact tells us that the 19th = Yellow OR Red

IF
19th = Red
We would have G, G, G, G, G, so the 24th Tile = GREEN

IF 19th = Yellow
We could have R, G, G, G, Y so the 24th Tile = YELLOW
Fact 2 is INSUFFICIENT

Combined, we know...
18th = Green OR Red
19th = Yellow OR Red

Since Red can only be followed by GREEN, the 18th Term CAN'T be Red!

So, 18th = Green and 19th = Yellow
we could have G, G, G, G, G, so the 24th = GREEN
we could have G, G, G, G, Y, so the 24th = YELLOW
Combined, INSUFFICIENT

[Reveal] Spoiler:
E

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Re: In a single row of yellow, green and red colored tiles   [#permalink] 31 May 2015, 13:52

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