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My CAT Quant Corner

by Total Gadha - Monday, 26 October 2009, 02:52 PM
W hile teaching and taking doubts for CAT for the past so many years, I have discovered and collected a lot of quant fundas. Many of them I have documented but many more have been lost. So Finally I decided to have my own CAT 2010 Quant corner on TG where I can post and document these concepts forever. This is same as the Grammar Compendium that Dagny maintains. This thread will mostly arise out of doubts that I take as new questions generate new ideas. Although I am posting this thread on the main page (where it shall remain forever) and all of you can read it at your leisure, you are not allowed to post in this thread. If you do, I shall delete your replies. The best you can do to show your appreciation is to rate this thread. I will be posting in this thread each time I discover something new or each time I want to share a cute solution to a problem. If you have a funda of your own to share, please email me at admin [at] totalgadha [dot] com and I shall post the funda along with your name. If you wish to discuss any of these fundas with me, you are welcome to join me in CAT CBT Club Chatroom where high octane intellectual conversations abound. Please remember that this is NOT a doubt-solving thread or a lesson thread. It is just a place for you to visit frequently and discover something new.- Total Gadha
Fundamentals have uncanny way of cropping up in very unexpected and unrelated problems. Yesterday I was telling a student during a doubt session in CBT Club Chatroom that I couldnt speak about Bezouts identity on chat and next thing I knew I got a question based on Bezouts identity that did not look like a Bezouts identity question at all! In fact, the question was that of expansion. But first, what is Bezouts Identity? Bzout's identity is a linear diophantine equation. It states that if a and b are nonzero integers with greatest common divisor d, then there exist integers x and y such that ax + by = d. Additionally, d is the smallest positive integer for which there are integer solutions x and y for the preceding equation. Note that x and y can be negative also. If we take x and y to be positive numbers, then we can find a number such that all the numbers above that can be written as a linear combination of a and b. Problem 1: On a dartboard, the only two points you can score are 9 and 16. What is the highest score you cannot obtain through this dartboard? Answer: A number n will give remainders 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 with 9. If it gives 0 (number is 9k) we only need some number of 9s to make up the number. If it gives remainder with 9 as 1 (9k + 1) we need 5 16s (9k + 1 + 80) to get remainder by 9 as zero. 2 (9k + 2) we need 1 16 (9k + 2 + 16) to get remainder by 9 as zero. 3 we need 6 16s to get remainder by 9 as zero. 4 we need 2 16s to get remainder by 9 as zero. 5 we need 7 16s to get remainder by 9 as zero. 6 we need 3 16s to get remainder by 9 as zero. 7 we need 8 16s to get remainder by 9 as zero. 8 we need 4 16s to get remainder by 9 as zero. Therefore, the highest number of 16s we need is 8 and 16 8 = 128. 128 gives remainder 7 with 9. Therefore, if we find the next lowest number which gives remainder 7 with 9, we would not be able to express it in the form 9a + 16b as we will not have 8 16s with us. The next lowest number is 128 - 9 = 119. Therefore, 119 is the highest number that cannot be expressed in the form 9a + 16b. Note that between 119 and 128, the numbers have other remainders with 9 for which we need less number of 16s and hence those numbers can be expressed in the form 9a + 16b. Above 128, we have ample number of 16s to do the job. In short if m and n are coprime, the highest number that cannot be expressed in the form mx + ny, where x and y are whole numbers, is mn - m - n. Problem 2: There is an ample supply of milk in a milk tank. TG has a 5-liter and a 9-liter cans, both of them unmarked. How can he measure out 2 liters? Answer- If you find the natural number solution to the equation 5x + 9y = 2, you will get x = 4, y = -2. Therefore, you need to take out milk 4 times from 5 liter can and drain out 9 liters twice. Step 1: fill 5 liters can.
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Step Step Step Step Step Step Step Step Step
2: empty it in 9 liters can. 3: fill 5 liters can. 4: Pour it in 9 liters can. You can only pour out 4 liters. 1 liter left in 5-liter can. 5: empty 9 liters can. 6: pour 1 liter in 9 liters. 7: fill 5-liter can. 8: empty it in 9-liter. 9: fill 5-liter can. 10: Pour it in 9-liter. You can only pour 3-liters. 2 liter left in 5-liter can.
Notice that there can be many solutions to 5x + 9y = 2. To keep the pouring operations to a minimum, you need minimum value of |x| + |y|. Now what was the problem I was talking about? First a backgroundA few days back, I got a question on our Quant forumIn the expansion of (y + x + x 2)120 find the total no of terms. Although I made a boo boo in the question, the question is fairly simple to solve with a gadget (I shall discuss this gadget also later). The gadget is of finding the whole number solutions of the equation a + b + c = k. Now the general term of the expansion would be Ky a xb (x2)c where a + b + c = 120. Different values of a, b and c will give different terms. Therefore, total number of solutions (and hence total number of terms) = 122C2 = 7381. Remember this question- What is the number of distinct terms in the expansion of (a + b + c)20? (CAT 2008) The answer to this question was simple
22
C2 = 231
Now came a second questionIn the expansion of (1 + x + x 2)120 find the total no of terms. Answer- This was easy. The powers of x will vary from 0 to 240 therefore, the total number of terms will be 241. So is every question of the form with a single variable this easy? Not really, because THIS is the question that I faced during the doubt session in the CAT CBT Club ChatroomIf (1 + x + x5)15 = a0 + a1x + a2x2 + a75x75 then how many of the ai s are equal to zero? (Asked by Sarah) Answer- By asking how many coefficients are equal to zero, the question is again asking how many terms does the expansion contain. And now I cannot say that x will vary from 0 to 75 and hence 76 terms. I might be missing something (which I later found out I was). Fortunately, I was on the write track in this question. (1 + x + x5) = (1 + x(1 + x4)). Therefore, the general term in the expansion can be written as K xn(1 + x4)n. Now xn(1 + x4)n = xn(1 + ax4 + bx8 + cx12 + . px4n), for example, lets see some terms in the end. x15(1 + x4)15 = x15(1 + ax4 + bx8 + cx12 + . px60) = x15 + ax19 + bx23 + + px75. x14(1 + x4)14 = x14(1 + lx4 + mx8 + cx12 + . Rx56) = x14 + lx18 + mx22 + + rx70. So if you see the series of the powers in each term they are (75, 71, 67, 63), (70, 66, 62, 58, ), (65, 61, 57, 53) etc. So each series is starting with a multiple of 5 and decreasing with a common difference of 4. So if we take 75 as 0 (starting from the top), the terms are in the form 4a + 5b. So all we need to see which powers from the top cannot be written in the form 4a + 5b. The highest number will be 5 4 - 4 - 5 = 11. The other numbers will be 1, 2, 3, 6, and 7 which cannot be written in the form 4a + 5b. So from the top numbers 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, and 11 will become 74, 73, 72, 69, 68 and 64. So the terms with the powers 74, 73, 72, 69, 68 and 64 will be missing.
The number of numbers which cannot be written in the form mx + ny are equal to is straightforward
. Here, the answer
Remember that we are seeing from the top only as the lower portion would be covered by the powers of x. But there can be case when we can have lower powers of x missing also. If (1 + x3 + x7)15 = a0 + a1x + a2x2 + a75x105 then how many of the ai s are equal to zero?
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Answer: If you have read the earlier solution, I shall not dwell to much on this one. (1 + x3 + x7)15 = (1 + x3(1 + x4))15. The top series will be starting with multiples of 7 (105, 98, 91, etc..) and decreasing by 4. So taking 105 as 0, we need numbers from the top which cannot be written in the form 4x + 7y. There are such numbers at the top which are missing.
Also, at the bottom, since there is no x involved in expansion, there would be some numbers missing which cannot be written in the form 3x + 7y. There are 9 = 15. such numbers. So total number of terms missing = 6 +
So finally I discussed this funda in my CAT CBT club Chatroom. Took some time in explaining but I guess it was worth it.
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70 cows can graze on a field for 24 days

70 cows can graze on a field for 24 days and 30 cows can graze on the same field for 60 days. Some grass is already there and grass grows at a fixed rate. How many cows can graze on the field for 96 days?
Answer by TG: Let the length of the grass already present be L, rate at which grass grows per day be G, and the rate at which a single cow eats the grass per day be C. 70 cows will eat 70 24 C of the grass. In 24 days, additional grass that will grow will be 24G. L + 24G = 70 24 C Similarly, L + 60G = 60 30 C Subtracting the first equation from the second we get 36G = 120C or 3G = 10C. Keeping the equation of G in equation 1 we get L + 80C = 1680C ==> L 1600C Let N cows eat the field in 96 days, Therefore, L + 96G = N 96 C ==> 1600C + 320C = N 96 C ==> N = 20 Cows. Total Gadha
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A pirate ship has a crew of 14 members

A pirate ship has a crew of 14 members including its captain and a treasure box. No two locks can be unlocked by the same key and all the locks need to be unlocked to open the box. Determine the minimum number of locks and copies of keys that will be required to be distributed between the members of the crew such that, any six or fewer members of the crew cannot open the box but any combination of seven can.
Let me start small and explain. Suppose there were 6 pirates and you want any three to open the lock (s) but not any two. How many locks do you need and how many keys do you need to distribute among the pirates? First, how many groups of two pirates from 6 pirates A, B, C, D, E and F can you make? It will be 6C2 = 15. The
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groups are AB, AC, AD, AE, AF, BC, BD, BE, BF, CD, CE, CF, DE, DF, and EF. We want that none of these groups should be able to open a lock since no groups of two should open a lock. Therefore, for minimum number of locks, we keep one lock for each group that the group is not able to open. i.e. lets say AB is not able to open K1, AC is not able to open K2, EF is not able to open K15. So for K1, we will give the keys to every pirate except AB, for K2 we will give keys to every pirate except AC for K15 we will give the keys to every pirate except EF. This way, every group of two will be able to open 14 not locks but not the 15th one. But if it combines with other third person, it will be able to open all the locks! Therefore, the number of locks needed is 15 and every pirate will not have those many as equal to the number of groups of two he figures in. For example AB will not have keys for K1, AC will not have keys for K2, AD will not have for K3..and so on for groups containing A. therefore, A will not have keys for K1, K2, K3, K4, K5 but will have keys for rest of the groups. So A will have 10 keys. Similarly, for your puzzle, you will need to form groups of 6 in 14C6 ways. These are the number of locks you will need, i.e. one for each group. Therefore, you will need 3003 locks. And each pirate will have all the keys except the number of keys equal to the number of groups of 6 he does NOT figures in, i.e. 13C6 = 1716. Total Gadha
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The sum of 20 distinct numbers is 801. What is their minimum LCM possible?
by Total Gadha - Tuesday, 27 October 2009, 10:59 AM
The sum of 20 distinct numbers is 801. What is their minimum LCM possible? This question just arose in one of the classes of a fellow colleague. He was solving the question for non-distinct number for which the answer is 42. One of the students queried about the minimum LCM when numbers were not distinct. The answer calculated by my colleague was 480 and he asked me if there was smaller number possible. I decided to give it a try and a beautiful method came to me: The solution uses a simple funda- that if you take a number and its factors, the LCM of all those factors would be the number itself. As a first try, I decided to find a number with 20 divisors. 20 = 5 4 = (4 + 1)(3 + 1). So the number will be of the form a3 b4 . Also, 20 = 5 2 2 = (4 + 1)(1 + 1)(1 + 1). So the number can also be equal to abc4 . You can find out lots of numbers this way. But alas, none of the numbers give the sum of factors equal to 801. Then I decided to find a number with more than 20 divisors, maybe 21, 22, or 24 divisors. Then I would remove some of the divisors such the sum of the rest of the divisors was 801. And Voila! I got my answer! 360 is the number with 24 divisors. The sum of these divisors is 1170. If you remove 360, 2, 3 and 4 from these divisors, you have 20 numbers whose sum is 801. And the LCM of these factors is 360 itself. You cannot find a number smaller than this. Therefore, the smallest LCM is 360 and the 20 numbers are all the divisors of 360 minus 360, 2, 3, and 4.
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Escalator Problems
by Total Gadha - Tuesday, 27 October 2009, 03:47 PM
Here is one doubt on escalators from CBT Club Forum that I solved a few days back. The question is from TIME's Aimcat. First a little theory from my book on Time, Speed and Distance and then the question and its solutions. I hope most of you would understand how to solve escalator questions after this.
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Groupings and Distribution

by Total Gadha - W ednesday, 28 October 2009, 02:24 PM
Everytime a student learns a new trick, he is so eager to use it that many times he would use where it is not required. One gadget which generated much craze was the whole number solutions of equations such as a + b + c + d.. = N. Students are so enthusiastic to use N + r - 1Cr - 1 that they do not even stop to think which places can they use this formula. For example, a simple dialogue in my TathaGat class can go like thisMe- In how many ways can you give seven lottery tickets to 5 persons? Student- It would be number of solution of the equation a1 + a2 + a3 + a4 + a5 = 7.
11
C4.
Me- The tickets are different because of numbers. You can only apply this formula for distribution of similar things. Student- Then as each solution can be arranged in 7! Ways, we shall divide the answer by 7! i.e.
11
C4/7!
Me- Not every solution can be arranged in 7! Ways, for example (1, 1, 1, 1, 3) can only be arranged in 5 ways. Student- Umm Here it dawns on the student that he has not paid much attention to this gadget. One more live example from my TathaGat classMe- Five horses are running in a race. How many different finish are possible if ties can also be there? Student- Sir, a + b + c + d + e = 5, as a, b, c, d or e can be 0 also, it will automatically take care of the ties Me- Then in your case (1 1 0 0 3) is a solution but it cannot be since 2 nd and 3rd place cannot be empty. Student- That should automatically take care of the solutions. 0s mean that that place is not considered. (1 1 0 0 3) just means that 3 horses are in the first place and one each are finishing at 2nd and 3rd place. Me- Then for you (1 0 1 1 2) and (1 1 0 1 2) is the same case but according to your equation they are different cases. Student- yes, so how shall we solve it? He can solve it by not using this gadget at all! Learn that this gadget can only be used to distribute Similar things among Distinct places. You cannot use it for distribution of distinct things (lottery tickets above) or distribution among similar things. Why cant you use this formula to distribute dissimilar things amongst different places? Lets see again how this formula came about. Suppose we need to find the solution of a + b + c = 6. We take it as distributing 6 similar 1s in 3 different places. So we need to divide these six 1s in three groups. Therefore, we need to put 2 partitions amongst these 1s to divide them into three groups as shown below. So in the figure below, the blue circles represent the 1s and the red lines represent the partitions. We take the partitions to be similar things of one kind and the 1s as similar things of another kind.
So the number of ways of arrangement = number of solutions = 8!/6!2! What would happen if the things are dissimilar? Lottery tickets in out first example? The problem arises in using this formula- Lets take a simple example. In our example above the first box (place) was getting 2 balls (1s). Now suppose the things are different, as shown below-
Keeping distribution of other things as same, lets see the distribution of balls in the first box only. Now the formula 8!/2! (taking balls as different now) will count the two above cases as different (as it is counting the arrangement of these 6 different balls) but essentially they are the same as blue and pink balls are still going into the first box only. So you shall always get the wrong result by using this formula because even the arrangement of balls in the boxes is counted when things are distinct.
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But there ARE places when you can use the formula for distributing distinct things into distinct places, where the arrangement of balls in the boxes is counted. Can you think of such a situation? In how many ways can you wear six different rings on four fingers? Now can you realize the difference? The balls (rings here) are getting arranged inside the boxes (fingers here) also. For example, in the figure below you can wear the blue ring below the pink one or vice versa. Its different arrangement!
So now we use the formula by keeping partitions same and balls different. So number of ways = 9!/3!. Notice that we have removed division by 6! because we are taking the balls as different and the arrangement of balls inside the boxes are counted. This question is similar to the following questionIn how many ways 10 customers line up at four different checkout stands? Solve it yourself. Realize that the arrangement of customers in each line also matters! If you have more such doubts in Quant, join me in CAT CBT Club Chatroom and discuss them with me.
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Re: My CAT Quant Corner

by Total Gadha - Thursday, 29 October 2009, 01:38 PM
A Small correction in my first post:
Therefore, the highest number of 16s we need is 8 and 16 8 = 128. 128 gives remainder 2 with 9. Therefore, if we find the next lowest number which gives remainder 2 with 9, we would not be able to express it in the form 9a + 16b as we will not have 8 16s with us.
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How many elements of the set S = {20, 21, 22, , 22009} have a first digit of 4?
by Total Gadha - Thursday, 29 October 2009, 02:11 PM
This one is credited to Kamal Lohia Given that 22010 is a 606-digit number whose first digit is 1, how many elements of the set S = {20, 21, 22, , 22009} have a first digit of 4?
The smallest power of 2 with a given number of digits has a first digit of 1, and there are elements of S with n digits for each positive integer n 605, so there are 605 elements of S whose first digit is 1. Furthermore, if the first digit of 2k is 1, then the first digit of 2 k+1 is either 2 or 3, and the first digit of 2 k+2 is either 4, 5, 6, or 7. Therefore there are 605 elements of S whose first digit is 2 or 3, 605 elements whose first digit is 4, 5, 6, or 7, and 2010 - 3(605) = 195 whose first digit is 8 or 9. Finally, note that the first digit of 2k is 8 or 9 if and only if the first digit of 2 k - 1 is 4, so there are 195 elements of S whose first digit is 4. I would have to again remind all of you this is NOT a thread for asking doubts or posting queries. If you do not understand anything here, catch me in CBT Club Chatroom. Also, do join me today in the CAT CBT Club Chatroom at 6:00 pm for geometry discussion and doubts.
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What is the distance traveled by the dog in forward direction?

by Total Gadha - Friday, 30 October 2009, 02:55 PM
Whether you are a CAT 2009 or CAT 2010 aspirant, do join our CAT CBT Club to discuss more questions, interact with a phenomenal crowd and sharpen your preparation.
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by Total Gadha - Saturday, 31 October 2009, 07:38 AM
Here are two more problems from the doubt sessions in our CBT Club Chatroom. The two problems have a single theme in common: how a little bit of lateral thinking and a construction can make a complex problem childishly simple. Both the problems gave me my AHA moments in solving. And they also elucidate one point- even if you are able to solve a problem, keep trying hard to find a simpler solution. You shall gain an edge over others in terms of speed that way. I have realized that these AHA moments have started happening to me quite frequently, and that I am usually able to find a simpler method to solve a problem. Ahh well, I am boasting. problemsLet me just go to my two
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Thanks to doubt sessions for these two beauties. Do not forget us to join us for personal doubt sessions on CAT CBT Club.
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What is the cube with the highest volume that can be inscribed in a cone of radius r and height h
by Total Gadha - Monday, 2 November 2009, 12:40 PM
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If the first 192 numbers are written in base 2, how many times do we write the digit 1?
by Total Gadha - Thursday, 5 November 2009, 07:55 AM
One more beauty from the doubt session in the CBT Club Chatroom. The question is extremely simple to phrase, but solving is not easy. Took me a day to get to the root of what is happening and then discover the funda and generalize it. First, a little background. In May, 2008, I got the following doubt in Quant Forum-
Now let me come back to the question I got in my CAT CBT Club Chatroom-
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I shall end here. Please do not forget to join us for Algebra Discussion in CAT CBT Club Chatroom 6:00 pm onwards on Friday.
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by Total Gadha - Sunday, 22 November 2009, 10:59 AM
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I shall have to end here and leave the rest of it for my CBT Club students. I shall cover some more problems on these lines in the CBT Club.
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The Best CAT 2009 CAT 2010 Preparation Website

CAT 2010 Preparation Articles

My CAT Quant Corner

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My CAT Quant Corner

The Best CAT 2009 CAT 2010 Preparation Website

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. Here, the answer

The Best CAT 2009 CAT 2010 Preparation Website

70 cows can graze on a field for 24 days

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A pirate ship has a crew of 14 members

The Best CAT 2009 CAT 2010 Preparation Website

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The Best CAT 2009 CAT 2010 Preparation Website

The Best CAT 2009 CAT 2010 Preparation Website

Groupings and Distribution

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Re: My CAT Quant Corner

A Small correction in my first post:

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The Best CAT 2009 CAT 2010 Preparation Website

What is the distance traveled by the dog in forward direction?

The Best CAT 2009 CAT 2010 Preparation Website

Re: My CAT Quant Corner

The Best CAT 2009 CAT 2010 Preparation Website

The Best CAT 2009 CAT 2010 Preparation Website

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The Best CAT 2009 CAT 2010 Preparation Website

The Best CAT 2009 CAT 2010 Preparation Website

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The Best CAT 2009 CAT 2010 Preparation Website

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Re: My CAT Quant Corner

The Best CAT 2009 CAT 2010 Preparation Website

The Best CAT 2009 CAT 2010 Preparation Website

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