I think this is a high-quality question and I agree with explanation.

I just stumbled upon this question. Took me a while as to why S1 is the correct answer, but it was absurdly simple. Made me realise that I should start focusing more on the verbal section lol.

Nice one B.
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Hi Guys,

As per the question and S1:

There is at least one viper and at least one cobra in Pandora's box. How many cobras are there?
(1) From any two snakes from Pandora's box at least one is a viper.

it says that the box as at least one of the 2 snakes. So lets say the box has 10 vipes and 10 cobras = 20 snankes.
Now acc to S1 from any 2 snakes atleast one is a viper which means 1 or more than one, so in this case we can have 2 V and 0 C.

This would make the S1 insufficient.

Please let me know if my understanding of atleast 1 Viper is correct.

Ideally the question mentions only about the contents of the box so assuming there would be atleast 1 C in the box would be correct, but assuming the same for the 2 snakes would be wrong.

Please comment on this argument of mine.

Regards,
Abhishek

You'll benefit greatly if you read the whole discussion before posting a question. The second statement says: (1) From ANY two snakes from Pandora's box at least one is a viper.
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Oh! I got it!

Assuming that There are VVVVVVVVVV and (nC) in the box ; n is unknown number for now.

Whenever we pick any 2 snakes out of the box the possibility could be VV VC CV CC.

However, S1 tells us that "any 2 snakes taken out of the box will have at least 1 V"

and why is that? Because in the box C is less than 2 (n<2). Therefore, it is impossible to get CC.

Now let look back to the question states that "at least 1 C in the box" n>=1

Therefore 1<=n<2. The only answer here is 1 !!

this really helps me ..
I try to get this statement for for an hour.

Hi Bunnel,

That's a wonderful question on logic. Kudos to you!
I got carried away thinking no where in the question it is mentioned that there are no other snakes in the box other than Cobras and Vipers. I was not convinced even after reading the explanation. But then realized that statement one holds true only when all but one snake are Vipers, how many types of snakes doesn't even matter. A good learning! Thanks for the question

I think this is a high-quality question and I agree with explanation. Explanation provided by AdmitJA made me "get" it!

This is actually a perfect 700 question. Looks deceptively easy and at first glance, seems contrary to common sense.

i am happy with statement 2 being insufficient.

so are we saying that there are 98 vipers and 1 viper?

Bunuel niks18 chetan2u

I believe this this a value Q, we need to find unique answer to: how many cobras are there in a box?



If I got by AdmitJA logic,
I am getting zero cobra for first possibility and 1 cobra for second and third possibility.
Do we not need to have an unique answer to value Q?
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What that user means that if from ANY two snakes from Pandora's box at least one is a viper, THESE two picked snakes (out of more than two from the box) could be VV, VC ot CV but NOT CC. It does NOT mean that there are 0 cobras. From (1) it follow that here is only 1 cobra in the box.
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My Take :

Statement 1:

It means there is at least 1 viper if we select any two.

So Viper count can be 1 or 2.But Cobra count cannot be 2 if we select any two.
This basically means there is only 1 Cobra.

In terms of scripts.
VC
CV
VV

But CC combination will not be possible.

Statement 2:
There are total of 99 snakes .The number of cobras not known.
So insufficient.

Kudos if it helps!!

I think this is a high-quality question and I agree with explanation.

I think this is a high-quality question and I agree with explanation.

I think this is a poor-quality question and the explanation isn't clear enough, please elaborate. Statements in question are ambigious. To ans DS question statements must be clear.

This question has 5 pages of discussion. That's because it's very hard. But let me assure you: the question is 100% GMAT like, unambiguous and mathematically correct. All I can suggest is to go through the discussion and read it carefully.
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Took me a couple of minutes to get it. It helped me to think about it as a probability question:
There is at least one viper and at least one cobra in Pandora's box. How many cobras are there?

(1) From any two snakes from Pandora's box at least one is a viper.
Rephrase this statement to:
You grab 2 snakes out of the box (without replacing the first snake).
The probability of grabbing two cobras is zero.
==> only one cobra in the box


Great question B!!

I think this is a poor-quality question and I agree with explanation. Statement 1 uses ambiguous language

The first statement is logically, mathematically and verbally 100% correct.
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