Book Worms (Posted on 2003-02-01)

	Submitted by Ravi Raja
Rating: 2.7778 (9 votes)
Solution:	(Hide)
Let Albert, Bertrand and Charles have initially a, b and c number of books with themselves. Given that in the first division, Albert gives away to Bertrand and Charles as many books they initially had, so now the number of books each of them have after the first division are: Albert: (a – b – c); Bertrand: 2b, Charles: 2c In the second division, Bertrand gives away to Albert and Charles as many books they now have. That is, the number of books they have after the first division, so now the number of books each of them have are: Albert: 2(a – b – c); Bertrand: (3b – a – c); Charles: 4c In the third division, Charles gives away to Albert and Bertrand as many books they now have. That is, the number of books they have after the second division, so now the number of books each of them have are: Albert: 4(a – b – c); Bertrand: 2(3b – a – c); Charles: (6c – a – b) Now, from the problem, we have: (a – b – c) = 6 --------(1) (3b – a – c) = 12 --------(2) (6c – a – b) = 24 --------(3) Solving the above three equations, we get: a = 39, b =21 and c =12 So, the number of books each originally had is: Albert: 39 Books, Bertrand: 21 Books and Charles: 12 Books.

	Subject	Author	Date
	re: Simple solution (no fiddly algebra)	K Sengupta	2021-12-12 22:29:17
	No Subject	Johana	2003-11-17 18:18:49
	re: Simple solution (no fiddly algebra)	Ravi Raja	2003-02-04 19:28:01
	Simple solution (no fiddly algebra)	fwaff	2003-02-03 00:59:36
	re(2):	TomM	2003-02-02 09:54:15
	re(2):	TomM	2003-02-02 09:52:54
	re:	Mack	2003-02-02 08:37:55
	never mind about that last one, I misread the problem	Mack	2003-02-02 08:17:41
	re:	Mack	2003-02-02 08:17:02
	No Subject	TomM	2003-02-02 07:08:42