SOLUTION: I have been stuck on this problem for a week now, Please help. A man is carrying rice on a journey. He passes through three custom stations. At the first he gives up 1/3 of his

Question 174553: I have been stuck on this problem for a week now, Please help.
A man is carrying rice on a journey. He passes through three custom stations. At the first he gives up 1/3 of his rice; at the second he is allowed to keep 1/3 of what is left; and at the third, he gives up 1/4 of what remains. After passing through all three customs stations, he has 6 pounds less than he started with. How much rice did he have when he started?
Answer by josmiceli(19441) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Let him start out with amount of rice
At the first he gives up 1/3 of his rice, so he has
left
At the second he is allowed to keep 1/3 of what is left,
so now he has
left
At the third, he gives up 1/4 of what remains, so he gets to keep
3/4 of what remains. Now he has

After passing through all three customs stations, he has 6 pounds less than he started with, so he has

multiply both sides by

He had 7.2 pounds when he started
check:

OK
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