Bunuel
A local group working to get signatures for a petition to pass a new ordinance lists all signers in their database as either “residents” or “non-residents”. If the ratio of residents to nonresidents in the database is 3 : 5, how many signers are currently listed as non-residents in the database?
(1) If the next six signers are all residents, the ratio of residents to nonresidents in the database will be 1 : 1
(2) If three signers had been incorrectly assigned and were nonresidents rather than residents, the ratio of residents to nonresidents in the database would be 1: 3 once this was corrected.
When conditions change in a ratio problem, often the quickest way to solve is by using a variable to represent the "ratio multiplier".Since the prompt tells us that the ratio of residents to nonresidents is 3:5, we can think of the
actual number of residents as 3x and the
actual number of nonresidents as 5x. Once we know the value of x (the ratio multiplier), we'll also know the number of non-residents (and be able to answer the question).
Statement 1:If the next 6 signers are all residents, the new number of residents is 3x + 6. Now the ratio of residents to non-residents is:
\(\frac{3x + 6}{5x} = \frac{1}{1}\)
This can be solved for one answer for x, so we'll be able to answer the question. No need to go through it.
Sufficient.Statement 2:If 3 signers were incorrectly assigned as residents, to correct it we must subtract 3 from the residents (3x - 3) and add 3 to the non-residents (5x + 3). Now the ratio of residents to non-residents is:
\(\frac{3x - 3}{5x + 3} = \frac{1}{3}\)
As with the first statement, this can be solved, so we'll be able to answer the question.
Sufficient.The answer is D.Using the ratio multiplier when conditions change is almost always faster than using two different variables (for example, r for residents and n for non-residents) and setting up multiple equations. And on a DS question, once you have a solveable one-variable linear equation, you know it's sufficient and don't need to calculate.