GMAT Math : DSQ: Calculating the length of an edge of a prism
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Example Questions
Example Question #1 : Dsq: Calculating The Length Of An Edge Of A Prism
A carpenter is building a box to hold his tools. Find the legth of the second smallest side of the box.
I) The box will have a volume of 
II) The smallest side is half the length of the longest side and the middle side is three-quarters of the length of the longest side.
Both statements are needed to answer the question.
Statement I is sufficient to answer the question, but statement II is not sufficient to answer the question.
Either statement is sufficient to answer the question.
Statement II is sufficient to answer the question, but statement I is not sufficient to answer the question.
Neither statement is sufficient to answer the question. More information is needed.
Both statements are needed to answer the question.
Volume of a prism is found by:
We are given the volume in statement I.
We are told how the sides relate in statement II.
Put together these two statements will allow us to set up an equation to find the middle side.
Example Question #2 : Dsq: Calculating The Length Of An Edge Of A Prism
A pirate wants to hide all of his treasure. He commisions a local woodworker to build him a series of wooden chests of volume of 
I) The shortest side will be 
II) The middle side will be 2 feet long.
Either statement is sufficient to answer the question.
Statement II is sufficient to answer the question, but statement I is not sufficient to answer the question.
Statement I is sufficient to answer the question, but statement II is not sufficient to answer the question.
Neither statement is sufficient to answer the question. More information is needed.
Both statements are needed to answer the question.
Both statements are needed to answer the question.
A pirate wants to hide all of his treasure. He commisions a local woodworker to build him a series of wooden chests of volume of 
I) The shortest side will be 
II) The middle side will be 2 feet long
Use I) and II) to find the length of the smallest side
Next, use the short and medium sides, along with info in the prompt, to find the last side:
Example Question #3 : Dsq: Calculating The Length Of An Edge Of A Prism
Find the height of a box used to ship a computer, given the following:
I) The computer, along with all the cushioning, will take up a space of 
II) The width of the box will be 
Statement I is sufficient to answer the question, but statement II is not sufficient to answer the question.
Statement II is sufficient to answer the question, but statement I is not sufficient to answer the question.
Either statement is sufficient to answer the question.
Neither statement is sufficient to answer the question. More information is needed.
Both statements are needed to answer the question.
Neither statement is sufficient to answer the question. More information is needed.
Find the height of a box used to ship a computer, given the following:
I) The computer, along with all the cushioning, will take up a space of
II) The width of the box will be 
Begin by recalling the volume of a rectangular prism formula:
Where l,w and h are length, width and height.
Next, use II) to set up a relationship between w and l
Then, use the voume formula:
As you can see, we still have two unknowns, and no way of finding either.
Therefore, we do not have information.
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