Six shipments of machine parts were shipped

jeremy coleman

Where in the question does it say that the shipments are split equally between the two trucks? Is it not the case that one truck could be carrying 4 shipments, making E the answer?

Sep 23, 2016 • Reply

Cydney Seigerman, Magoosh Tutor

Hi Jeremy :)

The prompt does not say that there must be three shipments on each of the trucks. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that the statements are insufficient to determine on which truck S3 was placed.

Statement 1 is insufficient because we can make multiple arrangements based on the information given, and in some S3 would be on truck 1 while in others S3 would be on truck 2.

Now, let's take a closer look at Statement 2: S1 and S6 were shipped on the second truck.

So, we know from the start that part of the value on truck 2 is: 0.35

Now, in the prompt, we're told that "the first truck had a value greater than 1/2 of the total value of the six shipments." If we add up all of the fractional part of the value, we get 1, the total value of the shipments. So, truck 1 must have more than 0.5 of the fractional components of the value. If S3 is on truck 2, however, the value on truck 2 becomes:

0.35 + 0.167 ~ 0.52

That is to say, if truck 2 carried S1, S6, and S3, it would carry more than half of the total value of the shipments. However, we're told that truck 1 carries more than half the value. Therefore, we can conclude that S3 cannot be on truck 2 and must be on truck 1. Because we know which truck S3 must be on, Statement 2 is sufficient.

Does this make sense? I hope this clears up your doubts! :)

Sep 26, 2016 • Reply