There are five thieves, each loot a bakery one after the other such that the first one takes 1/2 of the total no.of the breads plus 1/2 of a bread. Similarly 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5fth also did the same. After the fifth one no. of breads remained are 3. Initially how many breads were there?

31.

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srinivas

  • Apr 14th, 2005
 

oh i found he answer is inappropriate ...it must be 127...coz ,its after 5 divisions there r still 3 more breads..now going from the last  
 
say x were the total num of breads remaining before the 5th thief has made the theft ....so he must hav taken 
x/2 +1/2 ...which means still there are x/2-1/2 breads which equals 3. 
 
implies x=7.....doing the same for 4 more times will result in 127 as answer which is the initial num of breads or req ans.

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pramod

  • Apr 24th, 2005
 

answer is wrong  
correct answer is 127

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Quester

  • Dec 31st, 2005
 

Hi friends, Just consider this way. Initially there were 'B' breads in the store. Thieves - U,V,W,X,Y.To get Total Breads we use: B - (U+V+W+X+Y) = 3 (Given) --------------> (1)ie. Total available - Total taken = Total remaining.U = (B/2+1/2) = 1/2(B+1) => V = 1/4(B+2) => W = 1/8(B+3) => X = 1/16(B+4) => Y = 1/32(B+5) So, using Eqn:1, we get B - (31B+57)/32 = 3=> B = 96+57 = 153.Is this correct?

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sufiimran

  • Aug 30th, 2010
 

Imran Patel

Answer Total breads were ---127

Let the Number of Breads Initial be x

You Should Go in Reverse Order as left Bread is 3
i.e x=?

After 1st person ate   A=x-(x/2)-(1/2)
                    i.e          A=(2x-x)/2-(1/2)
                    i.e          A=(x/2)-(1/2)
                    i.e          A=(2x-2)/4
                    i.e          A=(x-1)/2

like wise ----After 2nd person ate   B=(A-1)/2

like wise ----After 3rd person ate    C=(B-1)/2

like wise ----After 4th person ate    D=(C-1)/2

like wise ----After 5th person ate    E=(D-1)/2

Now as after 5th person ate the Value of remaining Bread is ---3

therefore the value of E=3;

Now go Reverse from botom to top to get the value of X after calcuating

Value of D=7

Value of C=15

Value of B=31

Value of A=63

Value of X=127

SO the Final answer is 127 breads were ther

My name is Imran Patel if any wrong with this answer please forward on  it----

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