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Tuesday, February 07, 2012

Boxes of Paper Clips

A total of 303 whole paper clips are in 12 boxes.  The box with the fewest has four.   Another box has 39.  Based on the following, how many paper clips are in each box?

Box C contains half as many as Box J.
Box F contains 1/10 as many as Box D.
Box L contains 1/5 as many as Box E.
Box H contains five times more than Box F.
Box L contains two fewer than Box C.
Box I contains three times as many as Box C.
Box A contains half as many as Box K.
Box K contains one fewer than Box I.
Box B contains four times as many as Box F.
Box G contains twice that of Box L.

7 comments:

  1. This on is a tricky one

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  2. a = 19, b= 16, c=13, d= 40, e= 55, f= 4, g= 22, h= 20, i =39, j= 26, k= 38, l = 11.

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  3. total: 303 - 12
    a - 19
    b - 16
    c - 13
    d - 40
    e - 55
    f - 4 <- lowest number - presumption from the description
    g - 22
    h - 20
    i - 39 <- the 39 after working out all the alternates
    j - 26
    k - 38
    l - 11

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  4. Nice one! Solved it the same as Thomas and Anubhav. It all fell into place that i must be 39, partially because we were dealing with whole paperclips and therefore nothing that worked out as a fraction would work.

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  5. I'm glad you enjoyed it Kobus. I don't have anything else to add to what you have already posted.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I should have been clearer, Thomas Jordan and anubhav garg have already posted the answer (well done! This took a while to solve!).

    ReplyDelete

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