Question 517564
<font face="Times New Roman" size="+2">


Work from the end of the problem back to the beginning.


5 left at the end, but this is half of what was there at 2 pm, so at 2 pm there were 10.  But this is 2 more than half of what was there at 1 pm, 8 times 2 is 16.  But this is 1 more than 3/4 of what was there at noon 15 is 3/4 of 20.



John
*[tex \LARGE e^{i\pi} + 1 = 0]
My calculator said it, I believe it, that settles it
<div style="text-align:center"><a href="http://outcampaign.org/" target="_blank"><img src="http://cdn.cloudfiles.mosso.com/c116811/scarlet_A.png" border="0" alt="The Out Campaign: Scarlet Letter of Atheism" width="143" height="122" /></a></div>
</font>