Hi All,
We're asked which of the 5 choices is '3rd greatest.' As 'scary' as this question might look, as long as you recognize that √2 is GREATER than 1, you can simply 'compare' answer choices (and avoid doing almost every calculation).
Answer A: 2√2 - 1
Answer B: √2 + 1
Answer C: 1 - √2
Answer D: √2 - 1
Answer E: √2
To start, we can look for patterns and similarities in the answer choices to make some easy deductions:
Answer C is the only NEGATIVE answer, so it's "5th"
Answer B > Answer E > Answer D (because of the "+1" and "-1"
Answer A can be rewritten as √2 + √2 -1. Since √2 is greater than 1, we know that (√2 - 1) would give us a positive result. Thus, Answer A > Answer E.
We now know that two of the Answers are GREATER than E (Answers A and B) and two of the answers are LESS than E (Answers C and D). Thus, the 3rd largest answer is....
Final Answer:
GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich