All ISEE Upper Level Quantitative Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #31 : Variables And Exponents
and are positive integers. Which is the greater quantity?
(A)
(B)
It is impossible to tell which is greater from the information given
(A) and (B) are equal
(A) is greater
(B) is greater
(B) is greater
Since and are positive,
for all positive and , making (B) greater.
Example Question #32 : Variables And Exponents
and are negative integers. Which is the greater quantity?
(A)
(B)
It is impossible to tell which is greater from the information given
(B) is greater
(A) is greater
(A) and (B) are equal
(B) is greater
Since and are both negative,
.
for all negative and , making (B) greater.
Example Question #33 : Variables And Exponents
and are positive integers. Which is the greater quantity?
(A)
(B)
It is impossible to tell which is greater from the information given
(A) and (B) are equal
(B) is greater
(A) is greater
It is impossible to tell which is greater from the information given
It is impossible to tell which is greater.
Case 1:
Then
and
.
This makes (A) and (B) equal.
Case 2:
Then
and
.
This makes (A) the greater quantity.
Example Question #41 : Variables And Exponents
and are positive integers greater than 1.
Which is the greater quantity?
(A)
(B)
It is impossible to determine which is greater from the information given
(A) and (B) are equal
(B) is greater
(A) is greater
(A) is greater
One way to look at this problem is to substitute . Since , must be positive, and this problem is to compare and .
and
Since 2, , and are positive, by closure, , and by the addition property of inequality,
Substituting back:
(A) is the greater quantity.
Example Question #42 : Variables And Exponents
and are positive integers greater than 1.
Which is the greater quantity?
(A)
(B)
It is impossible to determine which is greater from the information given
(B) is greater
(A) and (B) are equal
(A) is greater
It is impossible to determine which is greater from the information given
Case 1:
Then
and
This makes the quantities equal.
Case 2:
Then
and
This makes (B) greater.
Therefore, it is not clear which quantity, if either, is greater.
Example Question #43 : Variables And Exponents
and are positive integers greater than 1.
Which is the greater quantity?
(A)
(B)
(A) and (B) are equal
(B) is greater
(A) is greater
It is impossible to determine which is greater from the information given
(A) is greater
One way to look at this problem is to substitute . The expressions to be compared are
and
Since is positive, so is , and
Substituting back,
,
making (A) greater.
Example Question #44 : Variables And Exponents
Factor:
The expression is a prime polynomial.
We can rewrite as follows:
Each group can be factored - the first as the difference of squares, the second as a pair with a greatest common factor. This becomes
,
which, by distribution, becomes
Example Question #45 : Variables And Exponents
is a positive number; is the additive inverse of .
Which is the greater quantity?
(a)
(b)
(b) is the greater quantity
(a) is the greater quantity
(a) and (b) are equal
It is impossible to determine which is greater from the information given
(b) is the greater quantity
If is the additive inverse of , then, by definition,
.
, as the difference of the squares of two expressions, can be factored as follows:
Since , it follows that
Another consequence of being the additive inverse of is that
, so
is positive, so is as well.
It follows that .