The number of researchers in the three pharmaceutical companies A, B

Question

The number of researchers in the three pharmaceutical companies A, B and C are in the ratio 2:3:4, respectively. Is the average number of independent research papers submitted by each researcher greater than 40?

(1) The average number of independent research papers submitted by each researcher of the companies A, B and C are 50, 39 and 35, respectively.
(2) The total number of independent research papers submitted by all the researchers is less than 360.

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Matthyrou · Answer

ans d
1) avg tot= 2/9*50+3/9*39+4/9*35, sufficent 
2) at max 360<2x+3x+4x, x<40, sufficent

Matthyrou · Answer

but let me know if i'm wrong because i'm not sure of my reasoning

RealAyush · Answer

HildaT · Answer

Given:
The ratio of the number of researchers in companies A, B, and C is 
2:3:4.
Let the number of researchers in A, B, and C be

2x, 
3x, and 
4x, respectively.
We need to determine if the overall average number of independent research papers per researcher is greater than 40.
Statement (1)
The average number of papers per researcher in A, B, and C is 50, 39, and 35, respectively.

Total papers submitted by researchers in each company would then be:

A =2x *50=100x
B=3x*39=117x
C=4x *35=140x
Thus, the total papers across all three companies is:
100x+117x+140x=357x
The total number of researchers is :
2x+3x+4x=9x.

Therefore, the average number of papers per researcher across all companies is:

357x/9x=39.67
Since 39.67 is less than 40, Statement (1) alone is sufficient to answer the question with a "No."

Statement (2)
The total number of independent research papers submitted by all researchers is less than 360.
This information alone does not provide the specific distribution of research papers among the companies or the individual averages in A, B, and C.
Without this breakdown, we cannot calculate the overall average number of papers per researcher.
Thus, Statement (2) alone is insufficient.

Combining Statements (1) and (2)
Since Statement (1) alone is sufficient to conclude the answer (the overall average is 39.67, which is less than 40), we do not need to use Statement (2).

Answer:
The answer is (A): Statement (1) alone is sufficient.

Shade149 · Answer

Hello HildaT,

As you rightly calculated 9x is the total research papers, hence 9x is 360. Which gives us x is 40 on average. So it is sufficient to answer the query of whether it is greater than 40 or not. In this case, not. So the answer is D. They are both sufficient independently.

HildaT · Answer

Hello Shade 149,
I was also thinking so but 
the second statement uses the word less than and not equal to.
So we might be wrong to equate 9x to 360, because all the values less than 360 will need to be considered and mind you this is a Yes or No question so as long as you can get a definite yes or No at the same time,the statement is insufficient

Shade149 · Answer

I agree, considering it’s less than, 9x < 360 i.e. x<40. Which is a definite answer, because the question doesn’t need an exact value, it just needs to know if the answer is greater than 40 or not.

The number of researchers in the three pharmaceutical companies A, B

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GMAT Data Sufficiency (DS) Questions

The number of researchers in the three pharmaceutical companies A, B

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