You've got three boxes with apples. You know that:

1. In box A there are 6 apples less, or double the number of apples, than in box B.

2. in box C there are 5 apples more than in box A, or 5 less apples than in box B.

3. There are at least two boxes with the same number of apples in them.

How many apples are in each box?

Ok, first of all we know that Box C cannot have the same amount of apples as Box A. We can work this out by seeing the possibilities of both:

A:           and  C:

B-6                A+5

2B                  B-5

As we can see, if C was A+5, it obviously wouldn't be the same as A, and we would need A to have B-5 to be equal to it otherwise. Therefore, they cannot be the same.

Since at least 2 boxes have the same number of apples in them, we know these boxes are A and B. Obviously, they cant be the same if A was B-6. So, A must be double B.

The only way this could work is if B was 0 (2 x 0 = 0...) so A and B must be 0. C has to be a positive number (unless we have come across some kind of nega-apple) and therefore, it is 5 more than Box A... 0 + 5 = 5.

And so, we have determined that:

A = 0

B = 0

C = 5

However, the problem says you have 3 boxes WITH APPLES... So, I think that's meant to be read a different way...

Sorry about my poor explaining skills, but hey! You've got the answer, ok?

Posted by Matt on 2007-10-21 05:30:56