Online Word Problems #9

[Carla]

Online Question Bank : Word Problems : #9

This problem asked about the time scientists predicted it would take for the animal to become extinct. I am hesitant to go with answer choice E and found this problem challenging. I would just like to go over it for some more clarification of the solution.

[Guest]

Ten years ago, scientists predicted that the animal z would become extinct in t years. What is t?

(1) Animal z became extinct 4 years ago.

(2) If the scientists had extended their extinction prediction for animal z by 3 years, their prediction would have been incorrect by 2 years.

[StaceyKoprince]

This one probably seemed a little weird because of the distinction between when the animal actually became extinct and when scientists predicted it. Those are not necessarily the same thing - think of when the meteorologist predicts sunshine tomorrow... and then it rains all day and you don't have an umbrella. In this case, we want to find the prediction.

Statement 1 says nothing about the prediction, just what actually happened.

Statement 2 talks about the prediction, but doesn't tie to any actual numbers.

Statements 1+2 (together) give us some info... but we can ultimately find two different answers. Scientists made the prediction 10 years ago. It actually happened 4 years ago. If the scientists had made a different prediction, they would've been off by 2 years - so if it actually happened 4 years ago, they would've predicted it would happen EITHER 2 or 6 years ago (both are 2 years off of when it really did happen). If 10 years ago they predicted it would happen 2 years prior to now, that would've been 8 years after the prediction. If 10 years ago they predicted it would happen 6 years prior to now, that would've been 4 years after the prediction. Two different answers - so can't answer the question.

[daihwa]

This seemed like a Critical Reasoning question...

[RonPurewal]

[arnaud_le_net]

why statement 1 is not sufficient ?
We are in 2010. In 2000, the prediction gave t years for the extinction.
STM1: Extinction occured 4y ago then it occured in 2006. Then t = 2006 - 2000 = 6 ?
What am I doing wrong ????

[tejkumar.m]

statement 1 is not sufficient because the problem statement just says they have predicted as t years, but it doesnot mention that t is accurate.. i.e. t might be more or less to the actual period. hope this helps

[Ben Ku]

why statement 1 is not sufficient ?
We are in 2010. In 2000, the prediction gave t years for the extinction.
STM1: Extinction occured 4y ago then it occured in 2006. Then t = 2006 - 2000 = 6 ?
What am I doing wrong ????

arnaud_le_net:
You're doing the right math, but you're answering the wrong question. The question is asking when they PREDICT the animal would be extinct; the statement tells us the year the animal ACTUALLY was extinct. We still don't have information about the prediction.

Hope that helps.

[vak3e]

I was confused about this one b/c it said "Years" so I eliminated T=1 and picked "A" Would the GMAT ever play such linguistic tricks?

Thank you!

[RonPurewal]

I was confused about this one b/c it said "Years" so I eliminated T=1 and picked "A" Would the GMAT ever play such linguistic tricks?

Thank you!

"T years" allows t = 1.

The GMAT does not contain any "trick questions", linguistic or otherwise.