MCAT question: Apples and Apples

[dinesh19aug]

Q: Susie can buy apples from two stores: a supermarket that sells apples only in bundles of 4, and a convenience store that sells single, unbundled apples. If Susie wants to ensure that the total number of apples she buys is a multiple of 5, what is the minimum number of apples she must buy from the convenience store?

Options:
a) 0
b) 1
c) 2
d) 3
e) 4

The answer is A = 0. I do not think that question is correct. It should state that if Susie buys X bundles from super market then what is minimum she should buy from convnience store. However the question is open ended.

Susie can opt to buy 1 bundle (4 apples) from super market and so she needs to buy 1 apple from C store
Susie can opt to buy 5 bundle (20 apples) from super market and so she needs to buy 0 apple from C store
Susie can opt to buy 3 bundle (12 apples) from super market and so she needs to buy 3 apple from C store

and so on.

Is my argument correct or am I missing something in the question??

[rohit801]

yeah- i am not sure about this question. No matter what the multiple is, the answer will always be zero, right? even if there are no common factors between 4 and the required multiple, one can always buy those many bags!

are you sure you copied the question correctly...?

[adiagr]

Q: Susie can buy apples from two stores: a supermarket that sells apples only in bundles of 4, and a convenience store that sells single, unbundled apples. If Susie wants to ensure that the total number of apples she buys is a multiple of 5, what is the minimum number of apples she must buy from the convenience store?

Options:
a) 0
b) 1
c) 2
d) 3
e) 4

The answer is A = 0. I do not think that question is correct. It should state that if Susie buys X bundles from super market then what is minimum she should buy from convnience store. However the question is open ended.

Susie can opt to buy 1 bundle (4 apples) from super market and so she needs to buy 1 apple from C store
Susie can opt to buy 5 bundle (20 apples) from super market and so she needs to buy 0 apple from C store
Susie can opt to buy 3 bundle (12 apples) from super market and so she needs to buy 3 apple from C store

and so on.

Is my argument correct or am I missing something in the question??

See the question says

She has to ensure that the total number of apples she buys is a multiple of 5

To achieve this, what is the minimum number of apples she must buy from the convenience store


So, if the bundle she buys are

5 , 10 , 15 then the Total apples will also be a multiple of 5.

As such she would then require to purchase zero apples from convenience store, in each of the above cases.

[dinesh19aug]

@adigr:

The problem is that question does not say if she has to buy all or x bundles from supermarket. You are assuming that susie will buy all the apples from supermarket.

The same way I can assume that if she buys just 1 set from supermarket then she has to buy a minimum of 1 apples.

[adiagr]

@adigr:

The problem is that question does not say if she has to buy all or x bundles from supermarket. You are assuming that susie will buy all the apples from supermarket.

The same way I can assume that if she buys just 1 set from supermarket then she has to buy a minimum of 1 apples.

There is no question of assuming.

If she buys just one set from supermarket then she has to buy 1 apple from convenience store.

Now the question arises is this "1" the minimum Number? Can there be any case when she can buy lesser than 1 apple from convenience store?

Yes. There is such a case. As you can see from above postings.

[dinesh19aug]

Thanks, it's clear now.

[mschwrtz]

ty adiagr

[dewanak]

as per me:

Minimum to buy from connivence store is 0.

She will buy from other store in pack of four so what all unit digits we can have 4,8,2,6,0

options provided are 0,1,2,3,4

so she can buy in multiple of 5 when she buys 0,1,3,2,4 from the convince store so minimum number will be obviously 0

Akshit

[mschwrtz]

That's correct dewanak, and exhaustive.

rohit801 was correct too, however many apples in the supermarket bundle, and whatever in whatever multiple she needed to purchase, the answer would always be 0. 17 apples in a bundle? Need to buy a multiple of 23? Buy 23 (46, 69, etc.) bundles of 17 each.