Problema Solution
In an art class, there were just enough staplers, rulers and glue bottles so that every 2 students had to share a stapler, every 3 students had to share a ruler, and every 4 students had to share a glue bottle. If the sum of the number of staplers, rulers, and glue bottles used by the class was 65, how many students were there in the class?
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Answer provided by our tutors
let
s = the number of staplers
Since every 2 students share a stapler the number of students is: 2s
r = the number of rulers
Since every 3 students had to share a ruler the number of students is: 3r
g = the number of glue bottles
Since every 4 students had to share a glue bottle the number of students is: 4g
s + r + g = 65
2s = 3r
s = (3/2)r
3r = 4g
g = (3/4)r
plug s = (3/2)r and g = (3/4)r into s + r + g = 65:
(3/2)r + r + (3/4)r = 65
by solving we find
r = 20 rulers.
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the total number of students is 3r = 3*20 = 60.