1987 AJHSME Problems/Problem 6

Problem

The smallest product one could obtain by multiplying two numbers in the set $\{ -7,-5,-1,1,3 \}$ is

$\text{(A)}\ -35 \qquad \text{(B)}\ -21 \qquad \text{(C)}\ -15 \qquad \text{(D)}\ -1 \qquad \text{(E)}\ 3$

Solution

To get the smallest possible product, we want to multiply the smallest negative number by the largest positive number. These are $-7$ and $3$ , respectively, and their product is $-21$ , which is $\boxed{\text{B}}$

1987 AJHSME (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 5	Followed by Problem 7
1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 • 23 • 24 • 25
All AJHSME/AMC 8 Problems and Solutions

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1987 AJHSME Problems/Problem 6

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