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fiendex
The amounts of time that three secretaries worked on a special project are in the ratio of 1 to 2 to 5. If they worked a combined total of 112 hours, how many hours did the secretary who worked the longest spend on the project?

A) 80
B) 70
C) 56
D) 16
E) 14

Similar question: https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-amount-o ... 01139.html
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fiendex
The amounts of time that three secretaries worked on a special project are in the ratio of 1 to 2 to 5. If they worked a combined total of 112 hours, how many hours did the secretary who worked the longest spend on the project?

A) 80
B) 70
C) 56
D) 16
E) 14

The ratio of the amounts of time that the secretaries worked on the project is x : 2x : 5x or a total of 8x.

Since the total number of hours is 112:

8x = 112

x = 14

The secretary who worked the longest worked for 5x = 5(14) = 70 hours.

Answer: B
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\(\frac{5}{8ths}\)of the time was spent by the longest working secretary. So the answer is more than 56. An eighth of
112 is 14. 56+14=70
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OFFICIAL GMAT EXPLANATION

Since the ratio of hours worked by the secretaries on the project is 1 to 2 to 5, the third secretary spent the longest time on the project, that is, (5/8)(112) or 70 hours. The best answer is therefore B.
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fiendex
The amounts of time that three secretaries worked on a special project are in the ratio of 1 to 2 to 5. If they worked a combined total of 112 hours, how many hours did the secretary who worked the longest spend on the project?

A) 80
B) 70
C) 56
D) 16
E) 14

The amounts of time that three secretaries worked on a special project are in the ratio of 1 to 2 to 5
1 + 2 + 5 = 8
So the above information is telling us that, for every 8 hours worked, the first secretary worked 1 hour, the second secretary worked 2 hours, and the third secretary worked 5 hours.
In other words, of the 3 secretaries contributed to 1/8, 2/8 and 5/8 of the job.

If they worked a combined total of 112 hours, how many hours did the secretary who worked the longest spend on the project?
The secretary who worked the longest is the one who contributed 5/8 of the job.
Since the job took a total of 112 hours, the number of hours that secretary worked = 5/8 of 112
= 5/8 x 112
= 70 hours

Answer: B
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Let's denote the amounts of time worked by the secretaries as x, 2x, and 5x, respectively. We are given that the combined total of their hours is 112.

Therefore, we have the equation:
x + 2x + 5x = 112

Combining like terms, we get:
8x = 112

Dividing both sides by 8, we find:
x = 14

So, the secretary who worked the longest spent 5x = 5 * 14 = 70 hours on the project.

Therefore, the correct answer is (B) 70.
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