Is y between -2 and 1 on the number line?

A number line consists of all numbers, not only integers but also fractions and irrational numbers. So, you are right, you can consider y to be 0.5 and 1.5 to get two different answers to the question.

Hello! Request some light on the wording. the questions says
"Is y between -2 and 1 on the number line?

1. y is to the right of -1 on the number line.
2. y is to the left of 2 on the number line"

Now as per 1) + 2) = -1<y<2 so Y is INBETWEEN the values. So I picked C as it is sufficient. But as per OA it is asking for a specific value, which of course it doesn't tell, hence E is right. So if a question comes similar to this, are we to pick the correct value or just answer the question stem (here: is it in between or not).
Thank you!

The question does not ask for the value of y.

The question asks: is -2 < y < 1. We got that -1 < y < 2 (which is not the same as -2 < y < 1). If y = 0, then the answer is YES but if y = 1.5 then the answer is NO.

Thank you, it really helped clear up a concept - I'll be using this to write the question better.

Asked: Is y between -2 and 1 on the number line?

(1) y is to the right of -1 on the number line.
y>-1
y may or may not be <1
NOT SUFFICIENT

(2) y is to the left of 2 on the number line.
y<2
y may or may not be >-2
NOT SUFFICIENT

Combining (1) & (2)
2>y>-1
NOT SUFFICIENT

IMO E

Posted from my mobile device

The question is asking whether y is between -2 and 1 and the statements should be able to answer "yes" or "no". Hence combining both statements we get that y is between -1 and 2 and this answers the question that y is not between -2 and 1. Isn't it?

There are two types of data sufficiency questions:


The question at hand belongs to the first category. For a statement to be sufficient, we should get a definite YES or a definite NO answer to the question, which asks "is -2 < y < 1?" When combining the statements, we get that -1 < y < 2. Now, y is a specific number, so if y = 0, then the answer is YES, y IS between -2 and 1 on the number line. However, if y = 1.5, then the answer is NO, y is NOT between -2 and 1 on the number line. Thus, we don't have a definite answer to the question, which means that the statements are insufficient and the answer is E.

To represent this visually, the question asks whether y falls within the green zone shown below:

----(-2)--(-1)-----1--2----

Upon combining the statements, we deduce that y falls somewhere within the blue zone shown below:


----(-2)--(-1)-----1--2----

As you can observe, y might or might not fall within the green zone, which indicates that the statements, when taken together, are insufficient.


Hope it's clear.

Thank you so much for the explanation. Now it's clear.

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