sat suite question viewer
The product of two positive integers is . If the first integer is greater than twice the second integer, what is the smaller of the two integers?
Explanation
Choice B is correct. Let be the first integer and let be the second integer. If the first integer is greater than twice the second integer, then . If the product of the two integers is , then . Substituting for in this equation results in . Distributing the to both terms in the parentheses results in . Subtracting from both sides of this equation results in . The left-hand side of this equation can be factored by finding two values whose product is , or , and whose sum is . The two values whose product is and whose sum is are and . Thus, the equation can be rewritten as , which is equivalent to , or . By the zero product property, it follows that and . Subtracting from both sides of the equation yields . Dividing both sides of this equation by yields . Since is a positive integer, the value of is not . Adding to both sides of the equation yields . Substituting for in the equation yields . Dividing both sides of this equation by results in . Therefore, the two integers are and , so the smaller of the two integers is .
Choice A is incorrect and may result from conceptual or calculation errors.
Choice C is incorrect. This is the larger of the two integers.
Choice D is incorrect and may result from conceptual or calculation errors.