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The twelve numbers shown represent, the ages, in years, of the twelve children in a school bus. What is the median age, in years, of the twelve children in the bus?
The twelve numbers shown represent, the ages, in years, of the twelve children in a school bus. What is the median age, in years, of the twelve children in the bus?
(1) x = 10 (2) y = 13
Median is the middlemost number when a list is arranged in ascending order, for even number of elements the median is the mean of two middlemost numbers/ Statement 1:
Y 8 8 8 8 Y 10 10 10 10 Y 11 Y 12 Y; Y represent the positions where we can put y (Y age in years so integer)
When Y<8 median is 10 When Y >12 median is 10 When y=10/11 median is still 10 When y= 9, median still 10. So sufficient.
Statement 2. y=13
x, x, x, x, 8, 8, 8, 8, 11, 12, 12, 13; median= 8.5 for x<=8 But for x=10 we saw that median is 10. So B statement is insufficient. Only A.
Re: The twelve numbers shown represent, the ages, in years, of the twelve
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22 May 2019, 02:16
1
This a perfect question that we can use the concept of maximization and minimization. There are three things to keep in mind while solving questions related to the median :
1. By definition, the median is the middle value in a list of numbers arranged in ascending or descending order. 2. The arrangement is always key to solving questions related to the median. 3. On questions where we have a list of elements with many variables, maximization and minimization is the best way to proceed.
Now lets jump into the solving of the question.
We have the list x, x, x, x, 8, 8, 8, 8, 12, 12, 11,y. Since the data here are of ages, x and y have to be integers.
Statement 1 : x = 10
Arranging the elements in ascending order we get, 8, 8, 8, 8, 10, 10, 10, 10, 11, 12, 12, y.
Now let us think about the max and min values of y. If y >= 12, then the max median will be 10. If y <= 12, then the list now becomes y, 8, 8, 8, 8, 10, 10, 10, 10, 11, 12, 12. Again, the min median will be 10. Sufficient.
Statement 2 : y = 13
Arranging the elements in ascending order we get, x, x, x, x, 10, 10, 10, 10, 11, 12, 12, 13.
If x<= 10, the list will be as above and then the minimum median is 10, but if x >=13, then the list will be 10, 10, 10, 10, 11, 12, 12, 13, x, x, x, x. In this case the max median will be 12. So the median here can be any value from 10 to 12. Insufficient.
The twelve numbers shown represent, the ages, in years, of the twelve
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22 May 2019, 03:01
AdityaCrackVerbal wrote:
This a perfect question that we can use the concept of maximization and minimization. There are three things to keep in mind while solving questions related to the median :
1. By definition, the median is the middle value in a list of numbers arranged in ascending or descending order. 2. The arrangement is always key to solving questions related to the median. 3. On questions where we have a list of elements with many variables, maximization and minimization is the best way to proceed.
Now lets jump into the solving of the question.
We have the list x, x, x, x, 8, 8, 8, 8, 12, 12, 11,y. Since the data here are of ages, x and y have to be integers.
Statement 1 : x = 10
Arranging the elements in ascending order we get, 8, 8, 8, 8, 10, 10, 10, 10, 11, 12, 12, y.
Now let us think about the max and min values of y. If y >= 12, then the max median will be 10. If y <= 12, then the list now becomes y, 8, 8, 8, 8, 10, 10, 10, 10, 11, 12, 12. Again, the min median will be 10. Sufficient.
Statement 2 : y = 13
Arranging the elements in ascending order we get, x, x, x, x, 10, 10, 10, 10, 11, 12, 12, 13.
If x<= 10, the list will be as above and then the minimum median is 10, but if x >=13, then the list will be 10, 10, 10, 10, 11, 12, 12, 13, x, x, x, x. In this case the max median will be 12. So the median here can be any value from 10 to 12. Insufficient.
Hope this helps! Aditya
Hello Aditya, nice to see you on the gmatclub & thank you for the precise explanation.
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78% (01:28) correct 
