Machines X and Y work at their constant rates. How many more hours does it take machine Y to fill an order of a certain size than it takes machine X?

Question

Machines X and Y work at their constant rates. How many more hours does it take machine Y to fill an order of a certain size than it takes machine X?
(1) Machines X and Y, working together, fill a production order of this size in two-thirds the time that machine X, working alone, does.
(2) Machine Y, working alone, fills a production order of this size in twice the time that machine X, working alone, does.
Given the above, what is true?
A.if statement (1) by itself is sufficient to answer the question, but statement (2) by itself is not;
B. if statement (2) by itself is sufficient to answer the question, but statement (1) by itself is not;
C.if statements (1) and (2) taken together are sufficient to answer the question, even though neither statement by itself is sufficient;
D.if either statement by itself is sufficient to answer the question;
E.if statements (1) and (2) taken together are not sufficient to answer the question, requiring more data pertaining to the problem

Answer 1

At no stage of the question, main stem OR the alternatives is there any mention of "hours/minutes/secs....etc". No absolute times have been mentioned anywhere and so providing an answer regarding actual time is not going to be possible. Based on this basic fact about lack of data,

Answer is (E).

 

Another way of looking at it is as follows: Let the order be for 36w widgets.

Let us say that X produces 6w widgets per hour, then X alone takes 6 hours to fill the order.

X & Y together get it done in (2/3) x 6 hrs, i.e 4 hrs.

Together they produce (36w/4) = 9w widgets per hr

Y alone produces 9w-6w = 3w widgets per hour, and would take 12 hrs. to fill the order by itself.

However if started with an assumption of X prodcing 6w per hour we could have picked 10w instead and so on and our answer would change.

Both statements provide relative measurements and no numerical (absolute) mesurements.