Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 6.0 AIME, harder Prove it North Macedonia

Ilina ate 15\frac{1}{5} plus three of the candies from the bag. From the remaining candies she ate 15\frac{1}{5} plus five the next day. The third day she ate the remaining 15 candies. How many candies were there in the bag in the beginning?

Solution

Let xx be the number of candies in the bag in the beginning. Then Ilina ate 15x+3\frac{1}{5}x + 3 during the first day and there were 45x3\frac{4}{5}x - 3 candies left. During the second day Ilina ate 15(45x3)+5\frac{1}{5}(\frac{4}{5}x - 3) + 5 and the third day she ate the remaining 15 candies. Hence
15x+3+15(45x3)+5+15=x. \frac{1}{5}x + 3 + \frac{1}{5}(\frac{4}{5}x - 3) + 5 + 15 = x.
Expanding:
15x+3+425x35+5+15=x \frac{1}{5}x + 3 + \frac{4}{25}x - \frac{3}{5} + 5 + 15 = x
Combine like terms:
(15x+425x)+(335+5+15)=x \left(\frac{1}{5}x + \frac{4}{25}x\right) + (3 - \frac{3}{5} + 5 + 15) = x
525x+425x=925x \frac{5}{25}x + \frac{4}{25}x = \frac{9}{25}x
335+5+15=(3+5+15)35=2335 3 - \frac{3}{5} + 5 + 15 = (3 + 5 + 15) - \frac{3}{5} = 23 - \frac{3}{5}
So:
925x+2335=x \frac{9}{25}x + 23 - \frac{3}{5} = x
Move all terms to one side:
925x+2335x=0 \frac{9}{25}x + 23 - \frac{3}{5} - x = 0
925xx=1625x \frac{9}{25}x - x = -\frac{16}{25}x
So:
1625x+2335=0 -\frac{16}{25}x + 23 - \frac{3}{5} = 0
1625x=3523 -\frac{16}{25}x = \frac{3}{5} - 23
1625x=31155=1125 -\frac{16}{25}x = \frac{3 - 115}{5} = -\frac{112}{5}
Multiply both sides by 1-1:
1625x=1125 \frac{16}{25}x = \frac{112}{5}
Multiply both sides by 2525:
16x=25×1125=5×112=560 16x = 25 \times \frac{112}{5} = 5 \times 112 = 560
16x=560 16x = 560
x=35 x = 35
So, there were 3535 candies in the bag in the beginning.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.