Last Updated on May 10, 2023
GMAT OFFICIAL GUIDE DS
Solution:
We need to determine the maximum number of liters that Marcia’s bucket can hold.
Statement One Alone:
The bucket currently contains 9 liters of water.
Only knowing that the bucket contains 9 liters of water is not enough information to determine the maximum capacity of the bucket. Statement one alone is not sufficient to answer the question. We can eliminate answer choices A and D.
Statement Two Alone:
If 3 liters of water are added to the bucket when it is half full of water, the amount of water in the bucket will increase by 1/3.
Using the information in statement two we can create an equation in which b = the maximum capacity of the bucket. It follows that when the bucket is half full we can express the amount of water in the bucket as ½b.
3 + ½b= (1 + 1/3)(½b)
3 + ½b= 4/3(½b)
Without going further we see that we have enough information to determine the value of b, which is the maximum capacity of the bucket. Statement two alone is sufficient to answer the question.
Answer: B
