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.
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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

Ans is correct ..D

simpler way to understand is to draw a rectangle and analyze

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.

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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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.

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

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!

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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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)