GMAT Question of the Day - Daily to your Mailbox; hard ones only

 It is currently 22 Sep 2019, 19:52

### GMAT Club Daily Prep

#### Thank you for using the timer - this advanced tool can estimate your performance and suggest more practice questions. We have subscribed you to Daily Prep Questions via email.

Customized
for You

we will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History

Track

every week, we’ll send you an estimated GMAT score based on your performance

Practice
Pays

we will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History

# Tom and Aly purchased a laptop each at the same price

 new topic post reply Question banks Downloads My Bookmarks Reviews Important topics
Author Message
TAGS:

### Hide Tags

Senior Manager
Joined: 28 Jun 2015
Posts: 285
Concentration: Finance
GPA: 3.5
Tom and Aly purchased a laptop each at the same price  [#permalink]

### Show Tags

17 Jul 2017, 22:23
10
00:00

Difficulty:

65% (hard)

Question Stats:

66% (02:47) correct 34% (02:41) wrong based on 74 sessions

### HideShow timer Statistics

Tom and Aly purchased a laptop each at the same price. Both of them marked up the price of their laptops by the same amount. Aly sold her laptop by offering successive discounts of $200 and 20%, in that order; whereas Tom sold his laptop by offering the same scheme of discount but in reverse order. If the profit made by Aly was equal to the loss incurred by Tom, then what was the amount of profit (in$) made by Aly?
(A) $20 (B)$25
(C) $30 (D)$35
(E) $40 _________________ I used to think the brain was the most important organ. Then I thought, look what’s telling me that. ##### Most Helpful Expert Reply Veritas Prep GMAT Instructor Joined: 16 Oct 2010 Posts: 9644 Location: Pune, India Re: Tom and Aly purchased a laptop each at the same price [#permalink] ### Show Tags 18 Jul 2017, 05:20 3 2 TimeTraveller wrote: Tom and Aly purchased a laptop each at the same price. Both of them marked up the price of their laptops by the same amount. Aly sold her laptop by offering successive discounts of$200 and 20%, in that order; whereas Tom sold his laptop by offering the same scheme of discount but in reverse order. If the profit made by Aly was equal to the loss incurred by Tom, then what was the amount of profit (in $) made by Aly? (A)$20
(B) $25 (C)$30
(D) $35 (E)$40

Both had to reduce the marked price by $200. The only difference lies in the fact that Aly, since she reduced the amount by 200 first, did not have to give a discount on it. Whereas, Tom gave a 20% off on$200 too i.e. he reduced the price by an extra 20% of 200 = $40 This additional reduction of$40 led to a loss equal to Aly's profit. So Aly must have had $20 profit and Tom must have had$20 loss.

_________________
Karishma
Veritas Prep GMAT Instructor

Learn more about how Veritas Prep can help you achieve a great GMAT score by checking out their GMAT Prep Options >
##### General Discussion
Manager
Joined: 14 Oct 2015
Posts: 244
GPA: 3.57
Re: Tom and Aly purchased a laptop each at the same price  [#permalink]

### Show Tags

18 Jul 2017, 04:11
1
TimeTraveller wrote:
Tom and Aly purchased a laptop each at the same price. Both of them marked up the price of their laptops by the same amount. Aly sold her laptop by offering successive discounts of $200 and 20%, in that order; whereas Tom sold his laptop by offering the same scheme of discount but in reverse order. If the profit made by Aly was equal to the loss incurred by Tom, then what was the amount of profit (in$) made by Aly?
(A) $20 (B)$25
(C) $30 (D)$35
(E) $40 Lets say, price after mark up is P. Sell price of Aly = $$(P - 200) 0.8 = 0.8P - 160$$ Sell price of Tom = $$0.8P - 200$$ Since profit of Aly is equal to loss of Tom, we know the actual price lies in the middle and we can split the difference to find the profit/loss made by each. Difference: $$0.8P - 160 - (0.8P - 200) = 0.8P - 160 - 0.8P + 200 = 40$$ Since this is the added difference from the actual purchase price, we have to halve it to find profit and loss of each. Profit made by Aly = 20 Loss made by Tom = 20 _________________ Please hit Kudos if this post helped you inch closer to your GMAT goal. Procrastination is the termite constantly trying to eat your GMAT tree from the inside. There is one fix to every problem, working harder! Target Test Prep Representative Status: Head GMAT Instructor Affiliations: Target Test Prep Joined: 04 Mar 2011 Posts: 2818 Re: Tom and Aly purchased a laptop each at the same price [#permalink] ### Show Tags 20 Jul 2017, 16:46 1 1 TimeTraveller wrote: Tom and Aly purchased a laptop each at the same price. Both of them marked up the price of their laptops by the same amount. Aly sold her laptop by offering successive discounts of$200 and 20%, in that order; whereas Tom sold his laptop by offering the same scheme of discount but in reverse order. If the profit made by Aly was equal to the loss incurred by Tom, then what was the amount of profit (in $) made by Aly? (A)$20
(B) $25 (C)$30
(D) $35 (E)$40

We can let p = the price of the laptops when Tom and Aly bought them and m = markup of the laptops. Thus, p + m = the price at which they originally wanted to sell the laptops. However, after the discounts, Aly sold her laptop at the price of (p + m - 200)(0.8) dollars and Tom sold his laptop at the price of 0.8(p + m) - 200 dollars. In dollars, the profit made by Aly is (p + m - 200)(0.8) - p and the loss incurred by Tom is p - (0.8(p + m) - 200). Since Aly’s profit is equal to Tom’s loss, we can create the following equation:

(p + m - 200)(0.8) - p = p - (0.8(p + m) - 200)

0.8p + 0.8m - 160 - p = p - 0.8p - 0.8m + 200

0.8m - 0.2p - 160 = 0.2p - 0.8m + 200

1.6m - 0.4p = 360

16m - 4p = 3600

4p = 16m - 3600

p = 4m - 900

At this point, we actually can make up a number for m (as long as p will be positive). For example, we can let m = 250, so p = 4(250) - 900 = 100. Thus, Aly’s profit is:

(100 + 250 - 200)(0.8) - 100

(150)(0.8) - 100

120 - 100

20 dollars

Note: For any number we make up for m (as long as p will be positive), Aly’s profit will always be $20. Alternatively, we can substitute p = 4m - 900 in the equation for the profit of Aly: Profit of Aly = (p + m - 200)(0.8) - p = (4m - 900 + m -200)(0.8) - (4m - 900) = (5m - 1100)(0.8) - 4m + 900 = 4m - 880 - 4m + 900 = 20 Answer: A _________________ # Jeffrey Miller Head of GMAT Instruction Jeff@TargetTestPrep.com 122 Reviews 5-star rated online GMAT quant self study course See why Target Test Prep is the top rated GMAT quant course on GMAT Club. Read Our Reviews If you find one of my posts helpful, please take a moment to click on the "Kudos" button. EMPOWERgmat Instructor Status: GMAT Assassin/Co-Founder Affiliations: EMPOWERgmat Joined: 19 Dec 2014 Posts: 15052 Location: United States (CA) GMAT 1: 800 Q51 V49 GRE 1: Q170 V170 Re: Tom and Aly purchased a laptop each at the same price [#permalink] ### Show Tags 03 Dec 2017, 23:01 1 Hi All, While this question involves a lot of information to keep track of, we can ultimately solve it by TESTing VALUES (albeit in a slightly "out-of-order" way). To start, we have no idea what the original price of the laptops were and we don't know what the 'marked up' prices were. I'm going to start with the MARKED UP price and come back to the original price later on: Marked Up Price =$1,000

Ally sold her laptop after giving a $200 discount, THEN a 20% off discount:$1,000 - $200 =$800
$800 - (20% of$800) = $800 -$160 = $640 Tom sold his laptop after giving a 20% discount, THEN a$200 off discount:
$1,000 - (20% of$1000) = $1000 -$200 = $800$800 - $200 =$600

We're told that Ally made a PROFIT that was EQUAL to Tom's LOSS. With sell prices of $640 and$600, respectively, the original purchase price would have had to have been $620 Ally =$640 - $620 =$20 profit
Tom = $600 -$620 = $20 loss Thus, Ally's profit =$20

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich
_________________
Contact Rich at: Rich.C@empowergmat.com

The Course Used By GMAT Club Moderators To Earn 750+

souvik101990 Score: 760 Q50 V42 ★★★★★
ENGRTOMBA2018 Score: 750 Q49 V44 ★★★★★
SVP
Joined: 03 Jun 2019
Posts: 1542
Location: India
Tom and Aly purchased a laptop each at the same price  [#permalink]

### Show Tags

19 Aug 2019, 01:27
TimeTraveller wrote:
Tom and Aly purchased a laptop each at the same price. Both of them marked up the price of their laptops by the same amount. Aly sold her laptop by offering successive discounts of $200 and 20%, in that order; whereas Tom sold his laptop by offering the same scheme of discount but in reverse order. If the profit made by Aly was equal to the loss incurred by Tom, then what was the amount of profit (in$) made by Aly?
(A) $20 (B)$25
(C) $30 (D)$35
(E) $40 Given: 1. Tom and Aly purchased a laptop each at the same price. 2. Both of them marked up the price of their laptops by the same amount. 3. Aly sold her laptop by offering successive discounts of$200 and 20%, in that order;
4. Tom sold his laptop by offering the same scheme of discount but in reverse order.
5. The profit made by Aly was equal to the loss incurred by Tom

Asked: What was the amount of profit (in $) made by Aly? 1. Tom and Aly purchased a laptop each at the same price. Let the purchase/ cost price of laptop be$x

2. Both of them marked up the price of their laptops by the same amount.
Let the marked up price of laptop be $y 3. Aly sold her laptop by offering successive discounts of$200 and 20%, in that order;
Selling price by Aly = (y-200)80% = .8(y-200) = .8y -160
Cost price = x
Profit gained by Aly = .8y -160 -x (1)

4. Tom sold his laptop by offering the same scheme of discount but in reverse order.
Selling price by Tom = .8y - 200
Loss incurred by Tom = x - (.8y -200) = x - .8y + 200 (2)

5. The profit made by Aly was equal to the loss incurred by Tom
.8y-x-160 = x -.8y+200
.8y - x = 360/2 = 180 (3)

Putting value of .8y-x in (1)
Profit gained by Aly = .8y -160 -x = (.8y-x) - 160 = 180 - 160 = $20 IMO A Alternatively The difference in selling price = (.8y-160) - (.8y-200) =$40
Profit (Aly) = Loss (Tom)
Profit + Loss = 40
Profit (Aly) = Loss (Tom) = \$20

IMO A
_________________
"Success is not final; failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts."

Please provide kudos if you like my post. Kudos encourage active discussions.

My GMAT Resources: -

Efficient Learning
All you need to know about GMAT quant

Tele: +91-11-40396815
Mobile : +91-9910661622
E-mail : kinshook.chaturvedi@gmail.com
Tom and Aly purchased a laptop each at the same price   [#permalink] 19 Aug 2019, 01:27
Display posts from previous: Sort by

# Tom and Aly purchased a laptop each at the same price

 new topic post reply Question banks Downloads My Bookmarks Reviews Important topics

 Powered by phpBB © phpBB Group | Emoji artwork provided by EmojiOne