In the xy-coordinate plane, what are the x-coordinates of the four ver

Question

In the xy-coordinate plane, what are the x-coordinates of the four vertices of square JKMN ?

(1) J and M are on the x-axis, and K and N are on the y-axis.
(2) The center of the square is at the origin.

DS16840.02

BrentGMATPrepNow · Accepted Answer

Target question :    What are the x-coordinates of the four vertices of square JKMN ?

When I SCAN the two statements ( always  scan the statements before performing any calculations!), I see that neither statement provides any information about the  size  of the square. 
So, I’m going to head straight to……

Statements 1 and 2 combined    
There are infinitely many squares that satisfy BOTH statements. Here are two: 
 https://i.imgur.com/6MKavGF.png 
Since the 4 vertices of the smaller square are different from the 4 vertices of the larger square, we can conclude that there is no way we can answer  target question  with certainty
So, the combined statements are NOT SUFFICIENT

Answer: E

Cheers,
Brent

nick1816 · Answer

Consider the square in the following diagram-

J and M are on X-axis and K, and N are on the Y-axis. The center of the square is at the origin. Also, length of the diagonal is '2a'.

We can draw infinite such squares by assigning 'a' different values. Hence, x-coordinates of J and M can have infinite values.

E

CrackverbalGMAT · Answer

Solution:

A new Og 2021 DS question

St (1) - J and M are on the x-axis, and K and N are on the y-axis.

We can visualize a square with J,K,M,N on the given axes, but we cannot determine the value of the coordinates as asked in the
question. (Insufficient)

St(2)- The center of the square is at the origin.

Let us assume J as(1,0) , M as (-1,0) , K as (0,1) and N as(0,-1) with center as origin (0,0).

We can also imagine another square with coordinates (2,0), (-2,0) , (0,2) and (0,-2) with center as origin(0,0).

So on and so forth, we can imagine multiple squares with center as origin.

Thus, we cannot determine the value of the coordinates as asked in the question.(Insufficient)

On combining both, we cannot know of the coordinates of J,K,M,N specifically. We only know on which axes they are located.

Hence option (E)

Hope this helps

Devmitra Sen (GMAT Quants Expert)

GMATinsight · Answer

Answer: Option E

Video solution by  GMATinsight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BX4gbRLGDE

bumpbot · Answer

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In the xy-coordinate plane, what are the x-coordinates of the four ver

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GMAT Data Sufficiency (DS) Questions

In the xy-coordinate plane, what are the x-coordinates of the four ver

Prep Toolkit

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My Rewards