October 1991 LSAT Section 3 Question 16

If the city of Nomo is in country X, and if Hannah spends as many days as possible in Nomo and as few days as possibl...

on December 22, 2020

Confused

I'm confused by how she could visit 4 cities when the stimulus says there are three countries and each country has as many cities (ie 3 cities) and that Hannah visits at least one city per country, visiting for at least 2 days per city. In this question it says she stays the most days in Nomo, which would be 10 days, with 4 days left to visit a city in Y and Z to give the full 14 days. How could she visit 4 cities in Y, spending at least 2 days in each city for a max of 8 days, leaving only 6 days in Nomo, which would not be the most days possible?

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Shunhe on December 23, 2020

Hi @shannonk68,

Thanks for the question! So we’re told that N is in X, and we want to spend as many days as possible in N an as few days as possible in each of the other cities. Well, the most days she can spend in a single city is 4 days, since she has to spend at least 2 days in every city. It’s either 4 days in one city and two in the other five, or 3 days in two cities, and two days in the others. Those are the only ways to split fourteen days among six cities.

So she spends 4 days in N and can spend 2 days apiece in each of the other cities. That means she could visit 4 cities in country Y and spend 8 days in country Y. Then we just need to put one more city in country Z, since we already know N is in country X. So she can visit four cities in country Y, and the answer is (B).

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any other questions that you might have.