Question

A person sells one more than half of the number of the total oranges to the first customer,one more than the one third of remaining oranges to the second customer and one more than one fifth of the remaining oranges to the third customer .at last he finds three oranges are left with him .the total number of oranges he has initially is .........

Answer 1

Sol :
Let the number of apples = x
He sells apples to the first customer = x /2 + 1
He sells apples to the second customer = 1/3 { x - ( x/2 +1) } + 1
= (x+4) / 6
He sells apples to the third customer = 1 / 5 { x - [ (x / 2) + 1) + (x+4) / 6 ] + 1
= (x + 10) /15
Finally he have 3 apples left then
x = (x +2) / 2 + (x+4) / 6 + (x + 10) /15 +3
x = {15(x +2)+5(x+4) +2 (x + 10) + 90} / 30
30x = 22x +160
8x = 160
x = 20.
∴number of apples = 20.