A clothing store acquired an item at a cost of x dollars and sold the item for y dollars. The store's gross profit from the item was what percent of its cost for the item?By clearly seeing the logic of what's going on in this question, we can answer it in under a minute without doing any formal math or writing anything.
The key aspect of the scenario to understand is that the percentage of the cost represented by the gross profit is basically a ratio of gross profit to cost. So, to answer the question, we need either some kind of information in ratio form that indicates what the ratio of gross profit to cost is or exact numbers that we can use to calculate the ratio between gross profit and cost.
(1) y - x = 20This statement does not indicate what any kind of ratio involved in the scenario is.
Also, the single value provided of does not enable calculation of any ratio since, to calculate a ratio, we need two sides.
Insufficient.
(2) y/x = 5/4This statement is interesting.
While it doesn't directly provide the ratio of gross profit to cost, by providing the ratio of price to cost, it provides information sufficient for determining the ratio of gross profit to cost.
After all, the ratio of gross profit to cost must be mathematically locked in by the ratio of price to cost since gross profit = price - cost. In other words, if we how the relative sizes of the price and the cost, we can use that information to determine the relative sizes of price - cost and cost, which we could then use to determine what percent of the cost is gross profit.
Sufficient.
Correct answer: B