Re: Observations on a Bad Week

Kim (darwinexceptiontakethisout@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
) wrote:

> 6. SAT QUESTION OF THE DAY:
> 
> The projected sales volume of a video game cartridge is given by
> the function s (p) = 3000/2p+a,  where s is the number of
> cartridges sold, in thousands; p is the price per cartridge, in
> dollars; and a is a constant. If according to the projections,
> 100,000 cartridges are sold at $10 per cartridge, how many
> cartridges will be sold at $20 per cartridge? 
> 
>      (A)  20,000
>      (B)  50,000
>      (C)  60,000
>      (D)  150,000
>      (E)  200,000

Again, it depends on the question number. Assuming this is in the 
hard section, you can eliminate B and E.

E is for the kid who thinks, hey, if I double the price to $20, 
that'll double the number of cartridges I sell. He will grow up to be 
someone's boss and make their life miserable. He is immune to reason.

B is for the kid who thinks a little harder but the formula makes his 
head hurt. Still, he figures, if I double the price, that'll probably 
cut sales in half.

That leaves you with A, C, or D. Here you can take a chance that the 
formula bears some relation to real world conditions. That's not a 
bad guess. The test makers generally don't choose ridiculous outcomes 
just to see if you can follow the numbers.

So ... raising the price isn't going to result in more sales. Get rid 
of D. That leaves A and C. Both are plausible. Let's get rid of A 
because it looks familiar and comfortable. There's a 20 in the 
question. Why should there be a 20,000 in the answer? This isn't an 
infallible technique, but we're trying to avoid work here.

So I predict the answer is C: 60,000.

-- 
Opus the Penguin
I try to not get too involved in the details of doll/dinosaur ***. - 
groo