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# In western Europe, x bicycles were sold in each of the years 1990 and

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Math Expert
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In western Europe, x bicycles were sold in each of the years 1990 and  [#permalink]

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15 Jun 2016, 01:21
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Difficulty:

65% (hard)

Question Stats:

66% (02:19) correct 34% (02:44) wrong based on 1920 sessions

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In western Europe, x bicycles were sold in each of the years 1990 and 1993. The bicycle producers of Western Europe had a 42 percent share of this market in 1990 and a 33 percent share in 1993. Which of the following represents the decrease in the annual number of bicycles produced and sold in Western Europe from 1990 to 1993?

A) 9% of (x/100)
B) 14% of (x/100)
C) 75% of (x/100)
D) 9% of x
E) 14% of x

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Re: In western Europe, x bicycles were sold in each of the years 1990 and  [#permalink]

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05 Dec 2016, 18:31
13
15
Bunuel wrote:
In western Europe, x bicycles were sold in each of the years 1990 and 1993. The bicycle producers of Western Europe had a 42 percent share of this market in 1990 and a 33 percent share in 1993. Which of the following represents the decrease in the annual number of bicycles produced and sold in Western Europe from 1990 to 1993?

A) 9% of (x/100)
B) 14% of (x/100)
C) 75% of (x/100)
D) 9% of x
E) 14% of x

We are given that in 1990 the bicycle producers in Western Europe produced and sold 42 percent of the bicycles in that market, and in 1993 they produced and sold 33 percent of the bicycles in that market.

Thus, they produced 0.42(x) bicycles in 1990, and 0.33(x) bicycles in 1993.

The decrease in bicycles produced and sold in Western Europe from 1990 to 1993 was:

0.42(x) - 0.33(x) = 0.09x or 9 percent of x.

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Re: In western Europe, x bicycles were sold in each of the years 1990 and  [#permalink]

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15 Jun 2016, 06:20
9
10
AbdurRakib wrote:
In western Europe, x bicycles were sold in each of the years 1990 and 1993. The bicycle producers of Western Europe had a 42 percent share of this market in 1990 and a 33 percent share in 1993. Which of the following represents the decrease in the annual number of bicycles produced and sold in Western Europe from 1990 to 1993?

A) 9% of ($$\frac{x}{100}$$)
B) 14% of ($$\frac{x}{100}$$)
C) 75% of ($$\frac{x}{100}$$)
D) 9% of x
E) 14% of x

OG 2017 New Question

The decrease has been from 42% of x to 33% of x = 9% of x...

Remember we are looking for NUMBER and 9% of x will give us answer in NUMBER... do not fall for A

D
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Re: In western Europe, x bicycles were sold in each of the years 1990 and  [#permalink]

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17 Jun 2016, 06:36
6
Though Question is Easy but the language of question is highly Convoluted, and i guess this is the problem with me only or language of the question is actually hard.

Moreover is't question actually asking the the difference between the {(Quantity Produced + Quantity Sold ) in 1990 - (Quantity Produced + Quantity Sold ) in 1993}

Though the Quantity sold in both the years is same it actually boils down to (Quantity Produced in 1990 ) in (Quantity Produced in 1993)

Hope my understanding is correct.
##### General Discussion
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Re: In western Europe, x bicycles were sold in each of the years 1990 and  [#permalink]

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17 Jan 2018, 13:27
4
Hi All,

While this question is wordy, it can be solved by taking the proper notes and TESTing VALUES.

We're told that X bicycles were sold in each of the years 1990 and 1993.

IF.... X = 100

100 bicycles sold in 1990
100 bicycles sold in 1993

Next, we're told that the producers had a 42% share of the market in 1990 and a 33% share of the market in 1993....

1990 share = 42% of 100 = 42 bicycles
1993 share = 33% of 100 = 33 bicycles

We're asked for the DECREASE in the NUMBER of bicycles sold by those producers from 1990 to 1993. That number is 42 - 33 = 9, so we're looking for an answer that equals 9 when we place X = 100 into the answer choices. There's only one answer that matches...

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Re: In western Europe, x bicycles were sold in each of the years 1990 and  [#permalink]

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14 Nov 2017, 20:10
2
gps5441 wrote:
This cannot be an official question language is very confusing or has not been reproduced correctly-"Which of the following represents the decrease in the annual number of bicycles produced and sold in Western Europe from 1990 to 1993?"- This means cycle industry has shrunk? but the information is about the western Europe manufacturers.
The answer though could be following if the question is worded right.
Lets us say in 1990 the no of bicycles sold was x=100 and with 42% of Market share(MS) the units sold is 42
1993 the no of bicycles sold was again 100 than 33% with MS is 33. The difference is 9 of 100(X).

Agreed, this is really poorly worded, but they probably did this on purpose. This one is from OG 2018, so definitely something we could see during the real test...
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Re: In western Europe, x bicycles were sold in each of the years 1990 and  [#permalink]

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20 Apr 2019, 06:16
1
ahmer wrote:
It was wordy for me at first !

but upon reading it carefully, it says, In Western Europe, x bicycles were sold each in 1990 and 1993"

which means total bicycles sold in Western Europe (x) = [Bicycles sold by Western Europe Manufacturers] + [Bicycles sold by all other manufacturers]

And then it goes on to ask only about Western Europe manufacturers and giving their percentages for the corresponding years.

It actually took me 5-10 minutes because I wasn't paying too much attention at the meaning and was rushing through the problem.

This post is for anyone who had the same problem as me.

Thanks

Dear ahmer,

Word problems are meant to be this way. "The hardest part about word problems is not the math but the paragraph(which eventually you need to understand) and you should take out the stuff from the paragraph asap and organize it into charts/tables. You shall also read it twice, in the first read you just understand what it is and organize the same and in the second read, you shall do the math" says a GMAT legend.
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Re: In western Europe, x bicycles were sold in each of the years 1990 and  [#permalink]

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08 Oct 2019, 11:43
1
Hi chrtpmdr,

You will still get the correct answer if you change the value of X... as long as you are answering the question that is ASKED.

IF... X = 1000, then the respective share of bicycles sold will become 420 and 330. The DECREASE then becomes 420 - 300 = 90... so we're looking for an answer that equals 90 when you plug X=1000 into it. That's still Answer

As an aside, 9/42 is the same as 90/420, but that was NOT what the question asked us for.

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Re: In western Europe, x bicycles were sold in each of the years 1990 and  [#permalink]

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28 Oct 2016, 22:07
1
chetan2u wrote:
AbdurRakib wrote:
In western Europe, x bicycles were sold in each of the years 1990 and 1993. The bicycle producers of Western Europe had a 42 percent share of this market in 1990 and a 33 percent share in 1993. Which of the following represents the decrease in the annual number of bicycles produced and sold in Western Europe from 1990 to 1993?

A) 9% of ($$\frac{x}{100}$$)
B) 14% of ($$\frac{x}{100}$$)
C) 75% of ($$\frac{x}{100}$$)
D) 9% of x
E) 14% of x

OG 2017 New Question

The decrease has been from 42% of x to 33% of x = 9% of x...

Remember we are looking for NUMBER and 9% of x will give us answer in NUMBER... do not fall for A

D

Can you plx explain why is the follwoingequation not correct

0.42x-0.33x[fraction]0.42x[/fraction][*]100?
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Re: In western Europe, x bicycles were sold in each of the years 1990 and  [#permalink]

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04 Nov 2016, 08:14
deeksha6 wrote:
chetan2u wrote:
AbdurRakib wrote:
In western Europe, x bicycles were sold in each of the years 1990 and 1993. The bicycle producers of Western Europe had a 42 percent share of this market in 1990 and a 33 percent share in 1993. Which of the following represents the decrease in the annual number of bicycles produced and sold in Western Europe from 1990 to 1993?

A) 9% of ($$\frac{x}{100}$$)
B) 14% of ($$\frac{x}{100}$$)
C) 75% of ($$\frac{x}{100}$$)
D) 9% of x
E) 14% of x

OG 2017 New Question

The decrease has been from 42% of x to 33% of x = 9% of x...

Remember we are looking for NUMBER and 9% of x will give us answer in NUMBER... do not fall for A

D

Can you plx explain why is the follwoingequation not correct

0.42x-0.33x[fraction]0.42x[/fraction][*]100?

The question is asking for the change in number of bikes sold, 0.42x is the number in 1990 and 0.33x is the number in 1993. so their difference is the answer.

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Re: In western Europe, x bicycles were sold in each of the years 1990 and  [#permalink]

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01 Aug 2017, 07:02
Bunuel wrote:
In western Europe, x bicycles were sold in each of the years 1990 and 1993. The bicycle producers of Western Europe had a 42 percent share of this market in 1990 and a 33 percent share in 1993. Which of the following represents the decrease in the annual number of bicycles produced and sold in Western Europe from 1990 to 1993?

A) 9% of (x/100)
B) 14% of (x/100)
C) 75% of (x/100)
D) 9% of x
E) 14% of x

Can we expect such convoluted wordings in the real exam? The way the question is worded, it is asking for 2 things: decrease in X and Y.X= # of bicycles produced. Y= # of bicycles sold. Also, the phrase 'from 1990 to 1993' just makes it even more wordy.
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In western Europe, x bicycles were sold in each of the years 1990 and  [#permalink]

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06 Sep 2017, 21:08
This cannot be an official question language is very confusing or has not been reproduced correctly-"Which of the following represents the decrease in the annual number of bicycles produced and sold in Western Europe from 1990 to 1993?"- This means cycle industry has shrunk? but the information is about the western Europe manufacturers.
The answer though could be following if the question is worded right.
Lets us say in 1990 the no of bicycles sold was x=100 and with 42% of Market share(MS) the units sold is 42
1993 the no of bicycles sold was again 100 than 33% with MS is 33. The difference is 9 of 100(X).
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Re: In western Europe, x bicycles were sold in each of the years 1990 and  [#permalink]

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14 Nov 2017, 20:51
gps5441 wrote:
This cannot be an official question language is very confusing or has not been reproduced correctly-"Which of the following represents the decrease in the annual number of bicycles produced and sold in Western Europe from 1990 to 1993?"- This means cycle industry has shrunk? but the information is about the western Europe manufacturers.
The answer though could be following if the question is worded right.
Lets us say in 1990 the no of bicycles sold was x=100 and with 42% of Market share(MS) the units sold is 42
1993 the no of bicycles sold was again 100 than 33% with MS is 33. The difference is 9 of 100(X).

This is from OG 2017 question #68. I don't see any problem with the wording at all.
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In western Europe, x bicycles were sold in each of the years 1990 and  [#permalink]

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03 Dec 2017, 22:22
This question was incredibly easy to solve. So easy, that I actually thought I did it incorrectly at first, and spent way too much time seeing if there was some other way to solve.

The wording of the question is what makes it tricky. "Which of the following represents the decrease in the annual number of bicycles produced and sold in Western Europe from 1990 to 1993?"

First of all, we know that x=total number of bicycles sold each year in Western Europe. Here's the tricky part. It tells us that the producers of bicycles in Western Europe had a total market share of 42% in 1990, and 33% in 1993. Since we know that x is the total number of bikes sold, to find the difference of total number of bikes produced and sold in Western Europe from the two years 1990 and 1993, use 0.42x-0.33x which equals 0.09x. Why can we just use 42% and 33%? Because if a Western European producer sold a bicycle in Western Europe, logically, that has to mean that the bike was produced and sold in Western Europe. So our answer, 0.09x is the same as saying "9 percent of x". The correct answer is D.
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Re: In western Europe, x bicycles were sold in each of the years 1990 and  [#permalink]

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24 Oct 2018, 12:51
it says "annual number", therefore my mind directly tends to divide with four (1993-1990 4 years). Any comment?
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Re: In western Europe, x bicycles were sold in each of the years 1990 and  [#permalink]

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24 Oct 2018, 21:09
Hi faltan,

If you had data on the number of bicycles sold in EACH year (1990, 1991, 1992 and 1993), then dividing the SUM of those numbers by 4 would give you the AVERAGE number of bicycles sold per year during that 4-year stretch. The prompt gives us information about just two of those years though: 1990 and 1993 (and explicitly states that it was JUST those two years). Thus, there doesn't seem like much of a reason to divide anything by 4.

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Re: In western Europe, x bicycles were sold in each of the years 1990 and  [#permalink]

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25 Oct 2018, 00:52
faltan wrote:
it says "annual number", therefore my mind directly tends to divide with four (1993-1990 4 years). Any comment?

Yes, you have to step back and review this sentence carefully.

"annual number of bicycles produced and sold in Western Europe" means the number of bicycles produced and sold in the year 1990 and the number of bicycles produced and sold in the year 1993.
"annual" just shows the number spans over the entire year.
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Re: In western Europe, x bicycles were sold in each of the years 1990 and  [#permalink]

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03 Dec 2018, 02:20
It was wordy for me at first !

but upon reading it carefully, it says, In Western Europe, x bicycles were sold each in 1990 and 1993"

which means total bicycles sold in Western Europe (x) = [Bicycles sold by Western Europe Manufacturers] + [Bicycles sold by all other manufacturers]

And then it goes on to ask only about Western Europe manufacturers and giving their percentages for the corresponding years.

It actually took me 5-10 minutes because I wasn't paying too much attention at the meaning and was rushing through the problem.

This post is for anyone who had the same problem as me.

Thanks
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Re: In western Europe, x bicycles were sold in each of the years 1990 and  [#permalink]

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14 Jun 2019, 00:36
Is this method right?

If we take an value say: 10,000 was sold per year

1990 - 10,000
1991 - 10,000
1992 - 10,000
1993 - 10,000

42% in 1990 - 4,200
33% in 1993 - 3,300

Decrease - 900

when we substitute x as 10,000 only this fits?
D) 9% of x
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Re: In western Europe, x bicycles were sold in each of the years 1990 and  [#permalink]

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15 Jun 2019, 04:58
The difficulty here is in the understanding of what exactly the problem is asking. I even tried the (difference) / (original) to compute for the percent change. Once you read the question twice and really understood what it was asking for. The question becomes manageable.
Re: In western Europe, x bicycles were sold in each of the years 1990 and   [#permalink] 15 Jun 2019, 04:58

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