My friend Andrew was throwing a very grand party and wanted to borrow from me 100 wine glasses. I wanted to send them through my neighbour’s servant Harry.

Just to give an incentive to Harry to deliver the glasses intact I offered him 30 paise for every glass delivered safely and threatened to forefeit 90 paise for every glass he broke. On settlement, Harry received 24 Rupees from me.

How many glasses did Harry break ?

( Given: 1 Rupee = 100 Paise )

Well, the 24 Rupees Harry recieved would be equivalent to 24x100=2400 Paise. If Harry delivered d glasses, and broke b glasses, this amount should be equal to 30d-90b. We also know that there are 100 total glasses, so the system of equations looks like:
30d-90b = 2400
d+b = 100
And to solve:
d = 100-b
30(100-b)-90b = 2400
3000-30b-90b = 2400
120b = 600
b = 5
:. d = 95.
Just to check:
30(95)-90(5) =?= 2400
2850-450 =?= 2400
2400 == 2400
So, Harry delivered 95 glasses but broke 5.

Posted by DJ on 2003-03-05 01:59:29