Three business people wish to invest in a new company. Each person is

Question

Three business people wish to invest in a new company. Each person is willing to pay one third of the total investment. After careful calculations, they realize that each of them would pay $7,200 less if they could find two more equal investors. How much is the total investment in the new business?

A. $64,000
B. $54,000
C. $21,000
D. $ 5,400
E. $ 3,600

A. $64,000
B. $54,000
C. $21,000
D. $ 5,400
E. $ 3,600

xLUCAJx · Answer

Total Investment between 5: (x/5)

Total investment including 7200 less between 3 people" (x-(7200*3))/3

Sent both eq. equal to eachother.

54,000

chetan2u · Answer

Hi,
another way to do it..
 3 of them are paying 7200 less 
total 7200*3=21,600...
 this is going to be paid by the 2 new persons..

so each pays= 21600/2=10,800..
total=10,800*5= 54000
B

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi All,

This question can be solved by TESTing THE ANSWERS. There is also a logical 'shortcut' in this prompt that can help you to avoid a lot of 'math work.'

We're told that 3 business people are each going to pay one third of a total investment in a company. We're also told that each of them would pay $7,200 LESS if they could find two more equal investors. We're asked for the TOTAL investment in the new business.

Since the original 3 investors would each pay $7200 LESS than they would originally pay, then each is clearly paying MORE than $7200 right now. That means the total investment must be GREATER than (3)($7200) = $21,600. This narrows down the options to Answers A and B.

Another thing to consider is that since the 3 original investors were all going to pay the SAME amount, the total investment IS almost certainly going to be a multiple of 3. Only Answer B matches, but you can still prove that it's the correct answer with a little work.

$54,000 spread among 3 investors = $18,000 each
$54,000 spread among 5 investors = $10,800 each
Difference = $18,000 - $10,800 = $7,200
This is an exact MATCH for what we were told, so this MUST be the answer.

Final Answer:  B

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

srosh2000 · Answer

Bunuel  could you pls answer this?

Bunuel · Answer

Three business people wish to invest in a new company. Each person is willing to pay one third of the total investment. After careful calculations, they realize that each of them would pay $7,200 less if they could find two more equal investors. How much is the total investment in the new business?

A. $64,000
B. $54,000
C. $21,000
D. $ 5,400
E. $ 3,600

A. $64,000 
 B. $54,000 
 C. $21,000 
 D. $ 5,400 
 E. $ 3,600

Let total investment = T

Each of 3 people pays T/3.
 If there were 5 equal investors, each would pay T/5.

The problem says each would pay $7,200 less in that case:
T/3 - T/5 = 7,200
T = 54,000

Answer: B.

Three business people wish to invest in a new company. Each person is

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Three business people wish to invest in a new company. Each person is

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