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 )
Harry was paid 2400Paise(24Rupees). Let a equal the number of unbroken glasses and b equal the number of broken glasses. Two equations are as follows:
a + b = 100 ->distribution of wine glasses
30a + (-90)b = 2400 ->payment for glasses, with +30 going to Harry for complete, and 90 taken away for broken.
a+b=100 ---> a=100-b substitute this in for "a" in the second equation.
30(100-b) - 90b = 2400
3000-30b - 90b =2400
-120b=2400-3000
-120b=-600
b=(-600)/(-120)
b=5
Thus Harry broke 5 glasses, while safely transporting 95.
Check 30(95)-90(5)=2400
simple substitution
