An egg salesman was asked how many eggs he had sold that day.
He replied, "My first customer said, 'I'll buy half your eggs and half an egg more'. My second and third customers said the same thing.
When I had filled all three orders, I sold out of eggs without having to break a single egg the whole day."
How many eggs were sold in all?
(In reply to
Puzzle Solution by K Sengupta)
If there were n customers, with n> 3 and each customer buying half the eggs plus half an egg, then in terms of similar methodology we would observe that after all the n customers had made their respective purchases, the number of eggs left behind would be x/(2^n) - (2^n - 1)/(2^n).
Equating this expression to zero, we get x = (2^n - 1)
Thus, for n customers, the required number of eggs would be 2^n - 1.
Solution To The General Case
