SOLUTION: Mother left some plums on a plate for her 3 sons. First son ate 1/3 of all plums and went to school. Second son thought that his brothers didn't have any plums yet, so he ate 1/3 o

Question 646420: Mother left some plums on a plate for her 3 sons. First son ate 1/3 of all plums and went to school. Second son thought that his brothers didn't have any plums yet, so he ate 1/3 of the remaining plums and went to school. Third son did the same as second, and there were 8 plums left on the plate. How many plums did mother leave?
Answer by stanbon(75887) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Mother left some plums on a plate for her 3 sons. First son ate 1/3 of all plums and went to school. Second son thought that his brothers didn't have any plums yet, so he ate 1/3 of the remaining plums and went to school. Third son did the same as second, and there were 8 plums left on the plate. How many plums did mother leave?
---------
Let the original # of plums be "x".
------------------------------------
start: x
after 1st son ate 1/3: 2/3x
after 2nd son ate 1/3: (2/3)(2/3)x = (4/9)x
After 3rd son ate 1/3: (2/3)(4/9)x = (8/27)x
----
Equation:
(8/27)x = 8
(1/27)x = 1
x = 27 (original unber of plums)
====================================
Cheers,
Stan H.
=================
RELATED QUESTIONS
Sarah gave Peter 1/3 of her plums. Peter ate 1/2 of plums and gave the rest to Jessica.... (answered by srinivas.g)

Hello, I submitted this problem earlier. However, I noticed that I forgot to mention some (answered by ikleyn,amalm06)

One store sold red plums at four for a dollar and yellow plums at three for a dollar. A... (answered by Fombitz)

Hello! I'm curious about this problem and I'm wondering if I could get some help on it.... (answered by josgarithmetic)

pedro went to the market and bought a total of 32 plums and peaches for $52. A plum is $2 (answered by solver91311)

A man left legacies to his three sons and to a hospital, amounting in all to $1,320.00.... (answered by richwmiller,stanbon)

A man left legacies to his three sons and to a hospital, amounting in all to $1,320.00.... (answered by stanbon,richwmiller)

a women left 2/5 th of her property to her daughter and 2/3 rd of the remaining property... (answered by josgarithmetic)

A man whose end was approaching summoned his sons and said: "Divide my money as I shall (answered by ankor@dixie-net.com)