Bunuel wrote:
One-tenth of the employees at a company dinner are vice-presidents, and one-third of the remaining employees are assistant vice-presidents. If there are e employees in attendance, how many employees in attendance are neither vice-presidents nor assistant vice-presidents?
A. e/30
B. 2e/5
C. 13e/30
D. 17e/30
E. 3e/5
One approach is to use the INPUT-OUTPUT approach (described in our free video -
http://www.gmatprepnow.com/module/gmat- ... /video/933)
We have two fractions (1/10 and 1/3), so let's let e = the least common denominator of these two fraction.
We'll let
e = 30If there are 30 employees, then the number of vice-presidents = (1/10)(30) = 3
one-third of the remaining employees are assistant vice-presidentsThere are 27 employees remaining.
1/3 of 27 = 9, so there are 9 assistant vice-presidents
So, the total number of vice-presidents AND assistant vice-presidents = 3 + 9 = 12
So, the number of employees who are NEITHER vice-presidents nor assistant vice-presidents = 30 - 12 =
18So, when the INPUT
e = 30, the OUTPUT is
18 people who are NEITHER vice-presidents nor assistant vice-president
Now check the answer choices to see which one yields an OUTPUT of
18, when we INPUT
e = 30A. e/30 =
30/30 =
1 - NO - ELIMINATE
B. 2e/5 = 2(
30)/5 =
12 - NO - ELIMINATE
C. 13e/30 = 13(
30)/30 =
13 - NO - ELIMINATE
D. 17e/30 = 17(
30)/30 =
17 - NO - ELIMINATE
E. 3e/5 = 3(
30)/5 =
18 - YES - KEEP
Answer: E
Cheers,
Brent
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