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Example Questions
Example Question #1 : X And Y Intercept
and
are two distinct nonvertical lines on the coordinate plane.
True or false: and
have the same
-intercept.
Statement 1: and
intersect at
.
Statement 2: and
are perpendicular.
Statement 2 ALONE is sufficient to answer the question, but Statement 1 ALONE is NOT sufficient to answer the question.
EITHER statement ALONE is sufficient to answer the question.
Statement 1 ALONE is sufficient to answer the question, but Statement 2 ALONE is NOT sufficient to answer the question.
BOTH statements TOGETHER are sufficient to answer the question, but NEITHER statement ALONE is sufficient to answer the question.
BOTH statements TOGETHER are insufficient to answer the question.
Statement 1 ALONE is sufficient to answer the question, but Statement 2 ALONE is NOT sufficient to answer the question.
The question is equivalent to asking whether the lines intersect at a point on the -axis.
Assume Statement 1 alone. Since and
are distinct lines,
, their common
-intercept, is their sole point of intersection. They cannot intersect at a second point, so they cannot have the same
-intercept.
Assume Statement 2 alone. Perpendicular lines are lines that meet at right angles; the question of their point of intersection is not answered by this statement.
Example Question #2 : Dsq: Calculating X Or Y Intercept
A function is graphed on the coordinate plane. Give the
-intercept of the graph.
Statement 1:
Statement 2:
EITHER statement ALONE is sufficient to answer the question.
Statement 2 ALONE is sufficient to answer the question, but Statement 1 ALONE is NOT sufficient to answer the question.
BOTH statements TOGETHER are sufficient to answer the question, but NEITHER statement ALONE is sufficient to answer the question.
BOTH statements TOGETHER are insufficient to answer the question.
Statement 1 ALONE is sufficient to answer the question, but Statement 2 ALONE is NOT sufficient to answer the question.
Statement 2 ALONE is sufficient to answer the question, but Statement 1 ALONE is NOT sufficient to answer the question.
The -intercept of the graph of
is the point at which it intersects the
-axis. Since this point has
-coordinate 0, the
-coordinate is
. Statement 1 does not give us this value, but Statement 2 does.
Example Question #8 : X And Y Intercept
and
are two distinct nonvertical lines on the coordinate plane.
True or false: and
have the same
-intercept.
Statement 1: and
have different
-intercepts.
Statement 2: and
both have slope
.
EITHER statement ALONE is sufficient to answer the question.
Statement 1 ALONE is sufficient to answer the question, but Statement 2 ALONE is NOT sufficient to answer the question.
Statement 2 ALONE is sufficient to answer the question, but Statement 1 ALONE is NOT sufficient to answer the question.
BOTH statements TOGETHER are sufficient to answer the question, but NEITHER statement ALONE is sufficient to answer the question.
BOTH statements TOGETHER are insufficient to answer the question.
Statement 2 ALONE is sufficient to answer the question, but Statement 1 ALONE is NOT sufficient to answer the question.
The question is equivalent to asking whether the lines intersect at a point on the -axis.
Statement 1 only establishes that the lines pass through different points on the -axis; no clues are given about any of their other points.
Statement 2 establishes that the lines have the same slope, and, subsequently, are parallel - that is, they do not intersect at all. Therefore, they cannot have the same -intercept.
Example Question #1 : X And Y Intercept
Continuous function has the set of all real numbers as its domain.
How many -intercepts does the graph
have?
Statement 1: If , then
.
Statement 2: .
Statement 1 ALONE is sufficient to answer the question, but Statement 2 ALONE is NOT sufficient to answer the question.
Statement 2 ALONE is sufficient to answer the question, but Statement 1 ALONE is NOT sufficient to answer the question.
BOTH statements TOGETHER are sufficient to answer the question, but NEITHER statement ALONE is sufficient to answer the question.
BOTH statements TOGETHER are insufficient to answer the question.
EITHER statement ALONE is sufficient to answer the question.
BOTH statements TOGETHER are insufficient to answer the question.
The two statements together prvide insufficient information.
Assume both statements are true. By Statement 1, is a constantly increasing function, so it can intersect the
-axis at most one time.
Now examine these two cases.
Case 1:
.
Also, if , then
, so
.
Since , the function has exactly one
-intercept.
Case 2:
Also, if , then
, so
.
However, 2 raised to any power must be positive, so there is no value for which
. The function has no
-intercepts.
Example Question #11 : Dsq: Calculating X Or Y Intercept
Mandy's teacher challenged her to write numbers in the circle, the square, and the triangle in the pattern below in order to make an equation whose graph has -intercept
and
-intercept
.
Did Mandy succeed?
Statement 1: Mandy wrote a 5 in the triangle.
Statement 2: The number Mandy wrote in the square was five times the number she wrote in the circle.
Statement 2 ALONE is sufficient to answer the question, but Statement 1 ALONE is NOT sufficient to answer the question.
BOTH statements TOGETHER are insufficient to answer the question.
EITHER statement ALONE is sufficient to answer the question.
Statement 1 ALONE is sufficient to answer the question, but Statement 2 ALONE is NOT sufficient to answer the question.
BOTH statements TOGETHER are sufficient to answer the question, but NEITHER statement ALONE is sufficient to answer the question.
Statement 2 ALONE is sufficient to answer the question, but Statement 1 ALONE is NOT sufficient to answer the question.
Let stand for the values Mandy wrote in the square, the circle, and the triangle, respectively. The equation becomes
.
From Statement 1 alone, we know that Mandy wrote a 5 in the triangle, but we do not know any of the others. The question of Mandy's success is unresolved.
Now assume Statement 2 alone is known. Then
.
The equation can be rewritten as
and it can be rewritten in slope-intercept form as
Mandy wrote an equation whose line has slope .
However, the slope of a line through and
is
.
Statement 2 alone is sufficient to establish that Mandy did not succeed.
Example Question #12 : X And Y Intercept
A line on the coordinate plane is neither horizontal nor vertical. Give its -intercept.
Statement 1: The line has slope .
Statement 1: The line passes through the origin.
Statement 2 ALONE is sufficient to answer the question, but Statement 1 ALONE is NOT sufficient to answer the question.
BOTH statements TOGETHER are insufficient to answer the question.
Statement 1 ALONE is sufficient to answer the question, but Statement 2 ALONE is NOT sufficient to answer the question.
BOTH statements TOGETHER are sufficient to answer the question, but NEITHER statement ALONE is sufficient to answer the question.
EITHER statement ALONE is sufficient to answer the question.
Statement 2 ALONE is sufficient to answer the question, but Statement 1 ALONE is NOT sufficient to answer the question.
Statement 1 provides insufficient information, since the slope of the line alone is not enough from which to deduce the -intercept. Statement 2 alone tells us that the line passes through the point
; since this is on the
-axis, this is the
-intercept.
Example Question #13 : X And Y Intercept
Stanley's teacher challenged him to write numbers in the circle, the square, and the triangle in the pattern below in order to make an equation whose graph has -intercept
.
Did Stanley succeed?
Statement 1: Stanley wrote a 4 in the square.
Statement 2: Stanley wrote a 16 in the triangle.
BOTH statements TOGETHER are insufficient to answer the question.
Statement 2 ALONE is sufficient to answer the question, but Statement 1 ALONE is NOT sufficient to answer the question.
BOTH statements TOGETHER are sufficient to answer the question, but NEITHER statement ALONE is sufficient to answer the question.
Statement 1 ALONE is sufficient to answer the question, but Statement 2 ALONE is NOT sufficient to answer the question.
EITHER statement ALONE is sufficient to answer the question.
BOTH statements TOGETHER are sufficient to answer the question, but NEITHER statement ALONE is sufficient to answer the question.
Let stand for the values Stanley wrote in the square, the circle, and the triangle, respectively. The equation becomes
.
To find the -coordinate of the
-intercept, set
and solve for
:
It is therefore necessary and sufficient to know the values of and
- the values Ralph wrote in the square and the triangle - in order to determine the
-intercept of Ralph's equation. Each statement alone give only one of those numbers; the two together give both.
Example Question #11 : Dsq: Calculating X Or Y Intercept
A function is graphed on the coordinate plane. It has exactly one
-intercept. What is it?
Statement 1:
Statement 2:
Statement 2 ALONE is sufficient to answer the question, but Statement 1 ALONE is NOT sufficient to answer the question.
BOTH statements TOGETHER are insufficient to answer the question.
Statement 1 ALONE is sufficient to answer the question, but Statement 2 ALONE is NOT sufficient to answer the question.
BOTH statements TOGETHER are sufficient to answer the question, but NEITHER statement ALONE is sufficient to answer the question.
EITHER statement ALONE is sufficient to answer the question.
Statement 1 ALONE is sufficient to answer the question, but Statement 2 ALONE is NOT sufficient to answer the question.
The -intercept of the graph of
is the point at which it intersects the
-axis. Since this point has
-coordinate 0, the
-coordinate is the value for which
. Statement 1 gives us this value; Statement 2 does not.
Example Question #12 : Dsq: Calculating X Or Y Intercept
Continuous function has the set of all real numbers as its domain.
How many -intercepts does the graph
have?
Statement 1: If , then
.
Statement 2: .
Statement 1 ALONE is sufficient to answer the question, but Statement 2 ALONE is NOT sufficient to answer the question.
BOTH statements TOGETHER are sufficient to answer the question, but NEITHER statement ALONE is sufficient to answer the question.
EITHER statement ALONE is sufficient to answer the question.
BOTH statements TOGETHER are insufficient to answer the question.
Statement 2 ALONE is sufficient to answer the question, but Statement 1 ALONE is NOT sufficient to answer the question.
BOTH statements TOGETHER are sufficient to answer the question, but NEITHER statement ALONE is sufficient to answer the question.
Statement 1 alone establishes that is always increasing. Its graph cannot have more than one
-intercept; if it does, then the graph of the function must have a vertex between two intercepts, violating this statement. But it does not answer the question as to how many intercepts
has, as seen in these two cases:
Case 1:
This is a linear function that is always increasing—it is in slope-intercept form, and its slope is 1, a positive number. The graph of has exactly one
-intercept.
Case 2:
An exponential function with a base greater than 1, such as this, is an increasing function; however, 2 raised to any power must be positive, so there is no value for which
. The graph of
has no
-intercepts.
Statement 2 alone establishes that at least one -intercept exists - since
,
is an
-intercept. It does not, however, rule out the possibility of more
-intercepts.
Now assume both statements are true. Since Statement 1 establishes that there is at most one -intercept, and Statement establishes that there is at least one
-intercept, the two statements together establish that there is exactly one.
Example Question #2821 : Gmat Quantitative Reasoning
Ray's teacher challenged him to write numbers in the circle and the square in the pattern below in order to make an equation whose graph has -intercept
.
Did Ray succeed?
Statement 1: Ray wrote a 5 in the square.
Statement 2: Ray wrote a 7 in the circle.
EITHER statement ALONE is sufficient to answer the question.
Statement 1 ALONE is sufficient to answer the question, but Statement 2 ALONE is NOT sufficient to answer the question.
BOTH statements TOGETHER are sufficient to answer the question, but NEITHER statement ALONE is sufficient to answer the question.
Statement 2 ALONE is sufficient to answer the question, but Statement 1 ALONE is NOT sufficient to answer the question.
BOTH statements TOGETHER are insufficient to answer the question.
Statement 2 ALONE is sufficient to answer the question, but Statement 1 ALONE is NOT sufficient to answer the question.
If we let stand for the number Ray wrote in the square and
stand for the number he wrote in the circle, the equation becomes
,
the slope-intercept form of the equation of a line. In this form, the -intercept is solely determined by the value of
—namely, the value that Ray wrote in the circle. Statement 1 is therefore irrelevant, and Statement 2 alone establishes that Ray did not succeed.
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