Riley is planting tulips along the edge of her rectangular flower gard

Question

Riley is planting tulips along the edge of her rectangular flower garden. If the flower garden is 72 square feet, and she plants one tulip per foot along the edge of each side with the exception of one of the 9-foot sides of the garden, how many tulips will she plant?

(A) 16
(B) 17
(C) 25
(D) 26
(E) 34

(A) 16
(B) 17
(C) 25
(D) 26
(E) 34

stne · Answer

Feel ans should be C instead of D

So the sides are 9, 9, 8 , 8

We are leaving out one 9 foot side 
So the rest of the sides total 9 +8 +8= 25
1 tulip per foot so 25 Tulips

Hoozan , please show how the ans is 26 Thank you.

Hoozan · Answer

Official Explanation  As the garden is rectangular, we can find the other dimension from the area and one dimension given to us.

Area = lw , so 72 = 9(w). We get  w = 8

9 tulips on each side of the 8-feet side and 
8 tulips on the single 9-feet side

So total tulips = 9+9+8 = 26

CEO2021 · Answer

Ans is correct ..D simpler way to understand is to draw a rectangle and analyze

MBAB123 · Answer

Hey  Hoozan , as per your figure, don't you think Rily is planting 2 tulips (1 on each end) on the edge that she is supposed to exclude? I understand your POV as well, but just sharing an alternate thought.

Hoozan · Answer

Yes that is one Outlook. But if we simply notice the answer choice we don't have 23 as one. So clearly we should include the vertices of the rectangle

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MBAB123 · Answer

I take your point, but I have never really come across a question in quant in which the inference of that question is based on the choices.

Hoozan · Answer

We actually have! There are questions to which we have two correct answer choices and hence need to look at the solution set to make our pick. For instance:

If  x^2 = 9 , Then what is the value of x?

(A) 1
(B) 2
(C) 3
(D) 4
(E) 5

Now, for x^2 = 9, x = +3 or x = -3. But since we have +3 as the answer choice we know we do not have to consider the negative solution.

P.S.  Brian123  I do understand what you mean but there are cases where we indeed do look at the answer choices for further understanding of the question. Such as the one above

MBAB123 · Answer

In the question that you've framed, I'd expect GMAT to say "which one of the following choices satisfy the equation" or something like that. Though, if you have any official questions like that, please let me know. Thanks!

Fdambro294 · Answer

One addition I’d recommend to the question.

“What is the MOST tulips she can plant if she plants 1 tulip every 1 foot on three of the sides, excluding one of the 9 foot sides?

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wishmasterdj · Answer

think of a stretch of a 9 feet side to contain 10 'vertices' each 1 foot apart, and the side-ones are to be the starting point of the other 2 sides.

so 10 (including edges) + 2*8 (remember 8 length side has 9 vertices, but one edge case is considered in our base length)

so 26 (D)

Fdambro294 · Answer

Bunuel

bb

I just came across this question as part of Jeff Sackman’s Word Problem question packet.

I, too, get the answer (D) 26. However, according to the packet, I was incorrect (my reason for coming here).

He has the official answer marked as (C) 25. As per his explanation:

“As the garden is rectangular, we can find the other dimension from the area and one dimension is given to us. 
Area = lw

So,

72 = 9(w)
w = 8

The perimeter of the three sides along which she will plant tulips is 8 + 8 + 9 = 25, and as she will plant one tulip per foot along those sides, the answer is 25(1) = 25.

Choice C”

His official explanation could be wrong, but I thought I would post it for the benefit of the community.

All the best!

Posted from my mobile device

Bunuel · Answer

The wording is ambiguous. Locking the topic and marking it as Poor Quality.

Riley is planting tulips along the edge of her rectangular flower gard

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Riley is planting tulips along the edge of her rectangular flower gard

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