What is the volume of a cardboard box with sides a, b, and

Question

What is the volume of a cardboard box with sides a, b, and c?

1.  a = \frac{12}{bc}

2.  b = 3, c = 2

See attached for spoiler and a follow-up question

arjtryarjtry · Answer

ans is A.

stat 1) vol = product of three sides , which is given in A.

stat 2) the third side is not given. can be anything.

vivektripathi · Answer

No where it is mentioned that a, b and c are lenth. breadth and hight.
Hence it should be "E"

brokerbevo · Answer

I agree, yet the official answer is A. These kind of pseudo-subjective questions that are open to interpretation are what scare me come test time. If I had the chance to explain my answers once the test was done, I could easily bump my score up 50 points.

icandy · Answer

While I agree that the word cardboard box (rectangular box and not a cube because all sides are not equal) does not tell any thing about the sides ( about L B H), Is it possible for a rectangular box (with 6 sides) to have 6 different sides?? IMO, NO. The sides of a rectangular box are the same and when they sides a,b,c they are the L, B, H indeed.

The ambiguity comes down to whether we can imagine cardboard box as rectangular box or NO.

Thoughts Fellas??

Twoone · Answer

I agree with icandy.

It is not mentioned whethere card box is rectangular box.

Otherwise. I will go with A. as abc = 12. 
 Whether a is length or height or depth. Does not make any difference in final volume.

brokerbevo · Answer

But Stmt 1 states that abc = 12 This "could" mean that a and b are the length (a = 2 and b = 2) and c is the width (c = 3). In this case, we don't know the height (perhaps "d" or some other variable) so therefore, statement 1 does not give enough info. We can not assume that a, b and c give us different pieces of data (height, width and length) because 2 or more of them could give us the same piece of information. Statement 2 is obviously not sufficient When taken together, we still have the same issue: can not assume that a, b and c give us different segments of the box. More comments welcome!!! :wink:

Twoone · Answer

Thanks!! I got it. :-D

scthakur · Answer

My reading on such questions is that if it mentions sides as a,b,c, I will assume a, b and c represent three distinct values and for a rectangular box, sides cannot have more than three distinct values.

Hence, I will go with answer A.

Hence, I will go with answer A.

brokerbevo · Answer

I kind of see what you are saying. Could you please point out what is wrong with my make-shift diagram I put together, it might make more sense to me when viewed visually. Thanks!!

GMAT TIGER · Answer

IMO, in case of ractangular/square/cube solid, always only 3 dimensions are given. when the question stem says sides a, b, and c they are different measurement of of length, bredth, and height.

No question asks to find the area or volume providing the measurements for all (six) sides. So the only thing that we need to make sure is whether the given solid is square or cube or rectangular.

However, I also agree that the question is definitely unclear.

IanStewart · Answer

Can you point out a single real GMAT question (from the OG, GMATPrep, or GMATFocus) that is ambiguous in its wording? GMAC spends $2400 designing each question in part to avoid any ambiguity; ambiguity eliminates any value a question might have on the GMAT, because an ambiguous question won't be answered much better by good test takers than by bad ones. So an ambiguous question does not give much information about your ability, and is essentially useless in helping to determine your score. If you did see a truly ambiguous question on your real GMAT (though I can assure you that you won't), it could only be a diagnostic question, because any ambiguously worded question would be discarded once calibration data was collected on it- the question would not provide good data.

And while I get your point about the above question, I'd interpret it the same way as GMATTiger; the question appears to intend for a, b and c to represent the three different dimensions of the box. I can't imagine you'd see a real GMAT question with that exact wording, however.

scthakur · Answer

In your first diagram, I will treat depth of diagram to be 2 (if length and width are 2 and 3 respectively).

GMAT TIGER · Answer

Having said all above, your argument would make more sense if the question asked to find the measurement of L, B and H.

What is the volume of a cardboard box with sides a, b, and

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards