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A certain painting job requires a mixture of yellow, green, and white paint. If 12 quarts of paint are needed for the job, how many quarts of green paint are needed? – OG 2020 Question #319 with Solution

A 2 min read

OG 2020: Question No. 319

A certain painting job requires a mixture of yellow, green, and white paint. If 12 quarts of paint are needed for the job, how many quarts of green paint are needed?

  1. The ratio of the amount of green paint to the amount of yellow and white paint combined needs to be 1 to 3.
  2. The ratio of the amount of yellow paint to the amount of green paint needs to be 3 to 2.

Source OG 2020
Type Data Sufficiency
Topic Word Problems
Sub-Topic Ratio
Difficulty Easy

Solution

Steps 1 & 2: Understand Question and Draw Inferences

In this question, we are given

  • A certain painting job requires a mixture of yellow, green, and white paint.
  • 12 quants of paint are needed for the job.

We need to determine

  • The amount of green paint (in quarts) needed for the job.

To find the amount of green paint, we need to know either the amount of yellow and white paints, or the individual proportion of each colour in the total paint.

With this understanding, let us now analyse the individual statements.

Step 3: Analyse Statement 1

As per the information given in statement 1, the ratio of the amount of green paint to the amount of yellow and white paint combined needs to be 1 to 3.

  • We know that amount of green paint = 12 – (amount of yellow and white paint combined)
    • Therefore, amount of yellow and white paint combined = 12 – amount of green paint.
  • Hence, we can rewrite statement 1 as [ amount of green paint / (12 – amount of green paint)] = 1/3

This is a linear equation with only 1 variable. Therefore, from this equation, we can determine the amount of green paint.

Hence, statement 1 is sufficient to answer the question.

Step 4: Analyse Statement 2

As per the information given in statement 2, the ratio of the amount of yellow paint to the amount of green paint needs to be 3 to 2.

  • However, from this statement, we cannot find any information about the amount of white paint or the total amount of yellow and green paint.

Hence, statement 2 is not sufficient to answer the question.

Step 5: Combine Both Statements Together (If Needed)

Since we can determine the answer from statement 1 individually, this step is not required.

Hence, the correct answer choice is option A.

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