Math help please!!!

[foney23]

Troy gave some apples to each of his 3 brothers. To the oldest he gave half of the apples and half an apple. He then gave half of what he had left and half an apple to his 2nd brother. Finally, he gave half of what he had left, and half an apple to his youngest brother. He then had no apples left.

At no time were any of the apples cut, split, or divided. How many apples did Troy have at the start?

 

[Deleted member 4993]

Hmm If he started with 7 whole apples, how did he give an apple half without cutting any apples? Of course he might have given 4 whole apples, but then he could not have given an apple half as the problem requires. I fear your answer fails to satisfy the conditions of the problem as given. Even my answer may fail if it means that no apples were cut before the moment defined as "start."

Edit: I was trying to follow your advice and not guess at what the poster might have meant.

JeffM,

Grudgingly - I have to admit Denis is correct with his clever solution.

If start with 7 - then when you give half of what you have and half more - you'd give 3.5 and 0.5 more. That would make it 4.

 

[Mrspi]

JeffM,

Grudgingly - I have to admit Denis is correct with his clever solution.

If start with 7 - then when you give half of what you have and half more - you'd give 3.5 and 0.5 more. That would make it 4.

And no apples are harmed in the process!

This is an OLD problem...and the "trick" is to recognize that at each stage, the number of apples must be an odd number. So when you give 'half the apples" that will be "something and a half", and adding "half an apple" results in a whole number.....without cutting any apples.

 

[Gkirkland1]

Please help with vertical assumtope

F(x) = 2xsquared. Divided by 3xsquared plus 1