Was the range of the amounts of money that Company Y budgeted for its

what we require to answer-
actual values of highest and least amount or some info to get the ratio/value..

lets see the statements-

(1) Both last year and this year, Company Y budgeted money for 12 projects and the least amount of money that it budgeted for a project was $400.
the statement just gives us the least possible amount of money in both years -12*400..
clearly insuff

(2) Both last year and this year, the average (arithmetic mean) amount of money that Company Y budgeted per project was $2,000
again we just know the average money per budget to be same
Insuff

Combined...
we know there are 12 projects and average is same 2000 for both years...
so amount of money is the same...
also the least money is the same for both...
BUT for RANGE, we require to know the highest amount of money budgeted for any project out of 12 months..
Insuff

E
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We have to figure out if range of budgets was equal to that of this year. If we could calculate the largest value- smallest value, then we will get the answer.

(1) Both last year and this year, Company Y budgeted money for 12 projects and the least amount of money that it budgeted for a project was $400.

Total number of projects= 12
Same value of $400 was allocated for least budgeted project.

We don't know the value allocated to highest budgeted project. Insufficient

(2) Both last year and this year, the average (arithmetic mean) amount of money that Company Y budgeted per project was $2,000.

Mean is 2000, but we don't know total number of projects and lowest and highest value. Insufficient.

Combining both statement.

Total value allocated= 12*2000= 24000
lowest value= 400
Remaining 236000 can be spread across 11 projects in any way, or the spread could be different for last year and this year. Not sufficient.

E is the answer
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I understand how to this problem is being solved. I got confused when I was combining both statement, and thought that together I had enough information since 1) told me the Lowest number for both year and 2)told me the average, so I thought I could find the range by doing. Lowest amount + Average= Highest amount. so 400+2000= 2,400. but I think i'm just mixing up things.

Why would it matter how its spread out? isnt the question asking about the range i.e. Highest value - smallest Value.? Could you explain detail why the option is E not C.

Yes you are right. Question is asking about Highest-Lowest value. Now we know that for each year, lowest value=400. And total value for each year = 12*2000 = 24000. The thing is that total =24000, and lowest for each year =400. But how does this tell us whats the highest value for each year? Its possible that highest value last year was 4000, and highest value this year was 3800. That would give different ranges for the two years.
But its also possible that highest values were also same for both years, in that case range would be same.

so we cant say.

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We need to see: Is Range (last year) = Range (this year) ?

Stmt 1: No. of projects =12, Min = 400 => Not sufficient
Stmt 2: Average=2000 => Not sufficient
Both together, => Not sufficient becauase 2000-400=1600 can be divided among 11 projects in multiple ways leading to different max values & hence differenet ranges

Reqd.- Range Last year=Range This year
Or Max Last year- Min Last year= Max This year- Min this year
Yes/No type

St-1- Project no.= 12 both year and Min amount last year= this year= 400
but we do not know max amount insufficient. (A and D out)

St-2 AM last year= AM this year= 2000, clearly insufficient no max min values (B out)

Combine
we can get sum of the budgeted money but it cant tell max value for last year or this year So C out

E is the answer.

Solution:

Question Stem Analysis:

We need to determine whether the range of the amounts of money that Company Y budgeted for its projects last year is equal to the range of the amounts of money that it budgeted for its projects this year. If we know both the amount of money of the project with the least budget for each year and the amount of money of the project with the greatest budget for each year, then we can determine whether the ranges of the two years are equal or not.

Statement One Alone:

We are given the amount of the money of the project with the least budget for each year; however, since we are not given the amount of the money of the project with the greatest budget for each year, we can’t determine whether the ranges of the two years are equal or not. Statement one alone is not sufficient.

Statement Two Alone:

This does not tell us the amount of money of the project with the least budget for each year nor the amount of money of the project with the greatest budget for each year. Statement two alone is not sufficient.

Statements One and Two Together:

Even with the two statements, we still don’t know the amount of the money of the project with the greatest budget for each year. Both statements together are not sufficient.

Answer: E
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