Problema Solution
mr. gangan who is very rich man called his seven sons. he had with him a number of pebbles each pebble representing a gold bar. to his first son, he gave half of the pebbles that he initially had and one pebble more. to his second son, he gave half of the remaining pebbles and one pebble more. he did the same to each of his five sons and then found out that he had one pebble left. how many pebbles are there initially?
Answer provided by our tutors
let 'x' represent the total number of pebbles he initially had
son 1 received: (x/2 + 1)
son 2 received: ((x/2 +1)/2 + 1) = (x+6)/4
son 3 received: (((x/2 +1)/2 + 1)/2 +1) = (x+14)/8
son 4 received: ((((x/2 +1)/2 + 1)/2 +1)/2 + 1) = (x+30)/16
son 5 received: (((((x/2 +1)/2 + 1)/2 +1)/2 + 1)/2 + 1) = (x+62)/32
x = (x/2 + 1) + (x+6)/4 + (x+14)/8 + (x+30)/16 + (x+62)/32 + 1
solving for 'x' we have x=290
initially, there were 290 pebbles