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We received several responses mentioning that a strategy of trial and error had been used to arrive at the result. This is a valuable strategy but it may be difficult to tell if there is more than one solution.
Alice used a spreadsheet to help her consider the many possibilities :
First of all I considered what number of counters each of them could have.
Ben's have to be a multiple of 3, but not 3, Emma's have to go by 5, but not 5, and Jacks had to go by 4 but not be 4.
I decided to do a spread-sheet:
Ben has 2/3 of his left and 1/5 of Emma's, (2B/3 + E/5),
Jack has 3/4 of his left and 1/3 of Ben's (3J/4 + B/3),
and Emma has 4/5 of hers left and 1/4 of Jack's (4E/5 + J/4).
After a few goes at putting numbers into the spreadsheet, the answer turned out to be 12 for Ben, 8 for Jack and 10 for Emily.
Zak and Sam from Norwich School for boys showed that this solution works:
Ian from Myton School reasoned as follows:
Ben's approach confirmed that there is a single solution:
E is a multiple of 5, B of 3 and J of 4.
E can start with 10, 15, 20\ldots etc (starts at 10 because cannot pass just 1 counter)
If we use 15 then passing 1/5 (ie.3) leaves 12. We cannot receive 1 counter on its own so the finishing total for E would be greater than 13 which is not possible as this would require more than 40 counters altogether. Therefore E must have started with 10.
If E starts with 10 then B + J < 30.
So B can start with 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21\ldots
and J with 8, 12, 16, 20\ldots
Only way to get E, B and J to finish with 13 (the maximum possible),
is if J = 20 and B = 9,
or if J = 8 and B = 21
However these do not work, so E, B and J must finish with less than 13.
Therefore we can eliminate other combinations leaving the options of
B starting with either 6, 9, 12 or 15,
and J starting with either 8, 12 or 16.
If E = 10,
B + J = 14, 17, 20, 23, 26 (since the total must be a multiple of 3)
so try 6 + 8.
This doesn't work so elimate 6 since it doesn't contribute to any other total.
Try 9 + 8.
This doesn't work so elimate 9.
Therefore B starts with either 12 or 15,
and J starts with either 8, 12 or 16.
12 + 12 = 24 and 12 + 15 = 27, so elimate J starting with 12.
Therefore B starts with either 12 or 15,
and J starts with either 8 or 16.
12 + 16 = 28 and 15 + 16 = 31, so elimate J starting with 16.
Therefore B starts with either 12 or 15,
and J starts with 8.
But B = 15 and J = 8 does not work
so B = 12 and J = 8
E= 10, B = 12, J = 8
All finish with 10 therefore use 30 counters.
A student from Carres Grammar School used simultaneous equations to arrive at the solution:
Knowing that x is a multiple of 3, y is a multiple of 4 and z is a multiple of 5 then leads to the solution.
Well done to you all.
Make a set of numbers that use all the digits from 1 to 9, once and once only. Add them up. The result is divisible by 9. Add each of the digits in the new number. What is their sum? Now try some other possibilities for yourself!
Take any pair of two digit numbers x=ab and y=cd where, without loss of generality, ab > cd . Form two 4 digit numbers r=abcd and s=cdab and calculate: {r^2 - s^2} /{x^2 - y^2}.