Twenty-Five Investments

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In 2009, an individual placed a total of $26,000 in 23 different investments. In 2010, that individual placed further funds in two new investments. Is the average (arithmetic mean) number of dollars of the amount placed in investments per investment for all 25 investments less than $1,200?

(1) Each investment added in 2010 contained more than $1,000.

(2) Each investment added in 2010 contained less than $1,500.

Review: Twenty-Five Investments




Explanation

If we call the amount of new investment x (that's for both new investments), then we want to know if $26,000+x is small enough for the average to be less than $1,200. After the addition, there are 25 investments, so the average formula gives us the following as the question we are being asked:







In other words, if the total amount of the two new investments is less than $4,000, the answer to the question is "yes," and otherwise it's "no." Let's turn to the data statements, separately first.

Statement (1) tells us that each new investment was more than $1,000. Case I: each investment was $1,500. The total of the two is $3,000, which is less than $4,000, so the answer to the question is "yes." Case II: each investment was $10,000. This is a legal case, by the data statement, and generates an opposite answer, so Statement (1) is insufficient.

Statement (2) tells us that each new investment was less than $1,500. That means their sum is less than $3,000, which means that their sum is less than $4,000. So the answer to the question is definitively "yes," and Statement (2) is sufficient.

The correct answer is (B).


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