Question 1205139
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I will take a slightly less restrictive position than tutor @ikleyn.<br>
The phrase "4 times bigger than" SHOULD NOT be used in the statement of a math problem, but it is not prohibited.<br>
Both of the tutors who supplied responses showing solutions to the problem got the wrong answers.<br>
The reason for their wrong answers is that they took "4 times BIGGER THAN" to mean the same thing as "4 times AS BIG AS".  It does not; those are two different things.<br>
4 times AS BIG AS means the number is 4 times what it was before -- i.e., it is 400% as big as it was.<br>
4 times BIGGER THAN means it has GROWN BY 400%, so now it is 500% as big as it was.<br>
So 4 times BIGGER THAN means 5 times AS BIG AS; if the smaller number is x, then the bigger number is 5x, not 4x.<br>
Using the correct interpretation of "4 times bigger than", since the second digit is 4 times BIGGER THAN the third digit, which means 5 times AS BIG AS the third digit.  Then there is only one possibility: the third digit is 1 and the second digit is 5.  That then makes the first digit 2.<br>
ANSWER (the only one): 251<br>
Unfortunately, in everyday sloppy English, the two phrases are nearly always used to mean the same thing.<br>
But in a math problem, where the given information has to be absolutely clear in order to find an answer, it is exceedingly bad form to use a phrase like "4 times bigger than" that is open to different interpretations.<br>