File Scanner

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If a certain computer program scans a total of 5,760 files when it runs, how many minutes will it take to complete the scan?

(1) The program scans 8 files per second.

(2) It takes 3 times as long to run the scan as it takes to upload the output to a server, and it takes a total of 16 minutes to do both.

Review: File Scanner




Explanation

Glancing at the question and the data statements, we can interpret this as a rate question. Rate question tend to have three logical parts: the rate and the each of the parts in the rate. In this case, the parts are files scanned and minutes, and the rate is files/minute. We have files, we want minutes, so we are likely to get a rate to answer the question. Indeed, that's exactly what Statement (1) gives us. The rate is in files per second, not files per minute, but we could convert it if we had to. Statement (1) is sufficient.

Statement (2) does something unexpected by introducing a new process, uploading. If the time we are looking for is T and the time to upload is U, then Statement (2) is telling us that and . We have two distinct equations for two variables, so we will be able to solve for T (it's 12). We have answered the question definitively, so Statement (2) is sufficient.

The correct answer is (D).


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