Which expression is the greatest?

Question

A) 3252/3257
B) 3456/3461
C) 3591/3596
D) 3346/3351
E) 3453/3458

Argo · Accepted Answer

Options can be re-written as (x-5)x => 1-(5/x)

A) 1- (5/3257)
B) 1- (5/3461)
C) 1- (5/3596)
D) 1- (5/3351)
E) 1- (5/3458)

To get the largest among these second half should be the least and so denominator to be largest. Hence 'C'.

Senthil1981 · Answer

all the choices give the same answer 1. so how come one of them is the greatest ??

stonecold · Answer

The rule we can use here is that => " Whenever we add the same constant to both the numerator and the denominator of a positive fraction, the fraction approaches one"

Now As for this Question
Let 3252/3257 be the original fraction.
Notice that it is a positive Proper fraction.
Hence adding the same constant to both the numerator and the denominator will increase the fraction as the fraction will move closer to one.
Hence we just have to pick the number that adds the greatest value to both the numerator and the denominator.
So It must be C. 
_______________

PerseveranceWins · Answer

Like this method. Kudos !!

Also, we can see the difference between Numerator and denominator is same for all options. So, bigger the value of numerator and denominator, bigger the fraction.
One more point to add here - in this question, all fractions are proper fractions (Num is smaller than den), but when num is bigger than den (improper fractions) and difference is same for 2 fractions (5/4 and 7/6), in such case the bigger the numerator, smaller the value of fraction.

Hope this helps.

jcerdae · Answer

What I did here was
1) realizing that the difference between the numerator and denominator was 5 (3252 - 3257 = -5)
2) This happens on every answer choice, where the denominator is higher than the numerator. This means that will always be less than 1
3) After that I asked myself, when is a fraction larger? 
 answer: when it is closer to 1
4) So I looked for the higher numerator because it will mean that it is closer to 1 than the others
 for example 95/100 is bigger than 20/25

Hope this helps someone!

bumpbot · Answer

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Which expression is the greatest?

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Which expression is the greatest?

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