small little concept help req

Question

if a no is between a and b ....do we include a and b in our calculations

and if a is 6 times more than b then is 
a =6b
or a=7b
i suppose the second one

luks silly but i faced a problem during my gmatpill test ....so thought of clarifying it

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear Rock , First, I will recommend this blog about number sense: https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/number-se ... -the-gmat/ You are falling into a very classic and common trap. When you hear the word "number", you are thinking of the set (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ....), a set mathematicians call either the natural numbers or the counting numbers or the positive integers . With all due respect, this is a third-grade definition of the word "number". The word "number" actually includes all kinds of numbers --- positive, zero, negative whole numbers & fractions & decimals. The GMAT loves to write questions that will punish people for thinking only of positive integers when the problem uses the word "numbers." Please learn this trap, because if you can avoid just this, it will put you ahead of so many other test takers. To answer your question: "more than" is equivalent to "greater than", and both of these mean something different from "greater than or equal to". If we say, x is greater than or equal to 6, then x could equal 6. If, by contrast, we say x is greater than 6 (or, more colloquially, "more than" 6), then 6 is not a legal value for x. But, again, be very careful. Suppose x > 6 --- what does this mean? The variable x could equal 7, but it could also equal 6.5, or 6.1, or 6.01, or 6.000000000000000000000000000001. As extreme as that last number may seem, believe it or not, there's a continuous infinity of possible values between 6 and 6.000000000000000000000000000001, and every single one of those values in that continuous infinity are numbers greater than 6. There's actually no such thing as the "next biggest number greater than 6." We can talk about a "next biggest integer", because integers are discrete, but we can't talk about a "next biggest number", because that gets us in trouble with the continuous infinity of the number line. The phrasing: a is 6 times more than b, by contrast, implies the equation a = 6b. This "more" is different from the inequality "more." I realize you got more than you bargained for in this answer, but this all very important information to understand. Let me know if you have any further questions. Mike

small little concept help req

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