Last Updated on May 4, 2023
GMAT OFFICIAL GUIDE PS
Solution:
We are given that a case contains c cartons. Each carton contains b boxes, and each box contains 100 paper clips. Thus we can say the following:
c x b x 100 = 100bc paper clips per case. Thus, 2 cases would contain 2 x 100bc = 200bc paper clips.
Answer: C
Note: Normally, we try not to plug in numbers when dealing with variable questions. However, if we truly could not grasp how to solve this with variables we could use convenient numbers for b and c. Let’s say b = 2 and c = 3. The new question is now:
A case contains 3 cartons. Each carton contains 2 boxes, and each box contains 100 paper clips. How many paper clips are contained in 2 cases?
Thus we can say:
3 x 2 x 100 = 600 paper clips per case. Thus there are 2 x 600 = 1,200 paper clips in 2 cases. Let’s now plug our values for b and c into the answer choices to see which answer choice gives us 1,200.
(A) 100bc
100 x 2 x 3 = 600
Answer choice A is not correct.
(B) 100b/c
(100 x 2)/3 = 200/3
Answer choice B is not correct.
(C) 200bc
200 x 2 x 3 = 1,200
Answer choice C is correct.
(D) 200b/c
(200 x 2)/3 = 400/3
Answer choice D is not correct.
(E) 200/bc
200/(2 x 3) = 200/6
Answer choice E is not correct.
