CAT 1995 — QA Question 6
Direction: Answer the questions based on the following information.
Four sisters — Suvarna, Tara, Uma and Vibha are playing a game such that the loser doubles the money of each of the other players from her share. They played four games and each sister lost one game in alphabetical order. At the end of fourth game, each sister had Rs.32.
Who started with the highest amount?
Answer & solution
Suvarna
- B
Tara
- C
Uma
- D
Vibha
Please note that the best way to solve this question is by working backwards.
E.g. after the 4th round, each one of them had Rs.32. Since it is Vibha who lost in this round, all the remaining three must have doubled their share.
In other words, they would have had Rs.16 each after the 3rd round.
Since the increase is of Rs.16 in each one’s share, i.e., Rs.48 overall which comes from Vibha's share, her share before the 4th round was (32 + 48) = Rs.80, after the 3rd round.
Working backwards in this manner, we can get the following table.
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âââââââIt was Suvarna who started with the highest amount, viz. Rs.66.