Professor Egghead's secretary, Mrs. Canton, wanted to buy all the grocer's apples for a church picnic. When she asked how many apples the store had, the grocer replied, "If you add 1/4, 1/5, and 1/6 of them, that would make 37."
How many apples were in the store?
Friday, January 25, 2008
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x/4 + x/5 + x/6 = 37
30x + 24x + 20x = 37 x 4 x 5 x 6
x = (37 x 4 x 5 x 6)/37
x = 60
why doesn't this work? I'm a lil rusty with math, but i thought i'd give it a shot...
1x/4 + 1x/5 + 1x/6 = 37
(add the fractions (since it's all the same variable) to get)
8/15x = 37
(mult both sides by 15)
8x = 555
(divide both sides by 8)
x = 69.375, so 69 apples.
ahhh shoot looks like i made a math error. i did not mean 8/15, i meant 37/60.
then when this was worked out, it came to x=60 when i followed the rest of the steps i had listed.
good game.
in order to add fractions you must first find the lowest common denominator. With 1/4 + 1/5 + 1/6, the lowest common denominator is 60. This means that there is no other number lower than 60 that all three numbers will divide into evenly. And to check your math, just divide each number into 60, then add them up. 4 goes into 60, 15 times.. 5 goes into 60, 12 times.. and 6 goes into 60, 10 times.. So 15+12+10 = 37 .. Therefore there were 60 apples!
I just added up the percentages and divided back into 37
1/4 = 25%
1/5 = 20%
1/6 = 16.66...%
total = 61.66...%
37 / 16.66...% = 60.000000005
Therefore: there were 60 apples
x/4 + x/5 + x/6 = 37
1st add x/4 + x/5
=9x/20
9x/20 + x/6 = 37
then combine
37x/60 = 37
divide both sides by 37/60
x=60
therefore 60 apples
The answer is 60 because:
1/4 of 60 = 15
1/5 of 60 = 12
1/6 of 60 = 10
^^^^^this = 37
1/4x+1/5x+1/6x=37
then, we all know that 60 is the LCD...
15/60x+12/60x+10/60x=37
its obvious that the answer now is 60 because 15+12+10=37
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