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A Bouquet Contains 16 Flowers, Each of Them Either a Rose, Tulip GMAT Problem Solving

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Question: A bouquet contains 16 flowers, each of them either a rose, tulip, daisy, or daffodil. If no two types of flower appear the same number of times in the bouquet, and there are more tulips than any other type of flower, what is the minimum number of tulips?

  1. 4
  2. 5
  3. 6
  4. 7
  5. 8

Correct Answer: C
Solution and Explanation:
Approach Solution 1:

Total flowers are 16.

Variety: Rose(R), Tulip(T), Daisy(Da), or Daffodil(Df).

Conditions: no two types of the flower appear the same number of times in the bouquet (All appears distinctively).
and More tulips than any other type of flower.

If we suppose each flower appears equal then: 16/4= 4

T= 4 ; R= 4 ; Da= 4 ; Df= 4
=> Tulips are more and no two appear the same number of times.
=> T = 7 ; R = Da = Df = 3 but no two appears same and we need minimum number possible for Tulip
=> T = 6 ; Others will be 5,4, 1 or 5, 3 , 2 .

Approach Solution 2:
Test option A. 4 cannot be the answer for tulips as there will be at least 1 greater than or equal to tulips.
Test option B. 5 cannot be the answer for tulips. 16-5= 11. There will be at least 1 other type equal or greater than tulip.
Test option C. 6 can be the answer. Since 16-6 = 10. For example tulips = 6, rose = 5, daisy = 3 and daffodil = 2. 6+5+3+2 =16

Approach Solution 3:
Since either is said, none of the varieties can have '0' flowers.
Hence the least any variety can have is '1'. But as the number of tulips are more than any other and minimum(integers) is asked, we need to put as low a number for tulips and as high a number for other varieties i.e. the numbers of flowers of the four varieties would be near to each other.
So, either we can test numbers from the options or go for hits and trials(brute force) or go for 4(16/4) and test various numbers.

Therefore, the number of tulips has to be more than 4 since 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 ≠ 16
Also, 5 is not possible since we can't repeat numbers to sum 16.
6, with a combination of 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, is possible to sum 16 - 1, 4, 5, 6.

“A bouquet contains 16 flowers, each of them either a rose, tulip”- is a topic of the GMAT Quantitative reasoning section of GMAT. To solve GMAT Problem Solving questions a student must have knowledge about a good amount of qualitative skills. GMAT Quant practice papers improve the mathematical knowledge of the candidates as it represents multiple sorts of quantitative problems.

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*The article might have information for the previous academic years, please refer the official website of the exam.

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