SOLUTION: Hello, I was wondering if you could help me solve this word problem You live in ancient England, and your father asks you to take some horses to your uncle, who lives 5 miles aw

Question 29620: Hello, I was wondering if you could help me solve this word problem
You live in ancient England, and your father asks you to take some horses to your uncle, who lives 5 miles away. However, he forgets that there are 3 toll collectors along the road.
Each toll collector makes you give him half the horses you have, plus half of a horse. When you reach your uncle, you have NO horses left. If it wasn't necessary to carve any horses in half as you traveled, how many horses did your start with?
Thank You!

Answer by stanbon(75887) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
If I read you right he started with 7 horses.
Start= x horses
After 1st toll he has x-(x/2)-(1/2)=(x/2)-1/2=(x-1)/2 horses
After 2nd toll he has [(x-1)/2 - (x-1)/4 -(1/2)]= (x-3)/4 horses
After 3rd toll has has [(x-3)/4 - (x-3)/8 -(1/2)]= (x-7)/8 horses
This last number must be zero.
So (x-7)/8=0
x-7=0
x=7 horses (number to start with.
Cheers,
Stan H.
T

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