Blade and Scarface are also trying to move toward more legitimate careers. They
ID: 3122193 • Letter: B
Question
Blade and Scarface are also trying to move toward more legitimate careers. They become newspaper men, publishing "The Daily Doubloon". They agreed that, for any papers they don't sell, they'll pay 25 cents out of their own salaries, to "cover the losses" till they get their business going. [That is, each person will cover half the unsold papers. If there were 8 papers left, then they would cover 4 apiece, so each pirate would pay a dollar.] Last night they printed a large number of copies of the Monday edition, for Scarface to deliver. First, he took a stack representing 2/19 of their copies, down to the wharf, and sold them to their friend Patch, ran a newspaper stand there. Next, he delivered papers door-to-door, to 41 fishing shanties in the neighborhood of Castaway Court. Then he took a quarter of what was left, to the city market, as it was starting business. Next, he stopped at 3 local grocery stores to sell them 50 papers took each, for their paper vending machines. Then he 2/5 of what was left, down to the Main Street Mall. He stopped Patch, who back 10 for a coffee and met sold him leftover papers and said he was closing his stand for the day due to feeling ill. Finally, Scarface took the papers he had and sold them on the street corner for the next couple of hours. He managed to he sell half of them. Just as he was packing up, Blackbeard came and got a dozen more, for his travel bureau. Scarface looks at the leftover papers, and realizes his half of "covering the losses" will be $27.25.Not so bad. So how many papers were left over, and how many did they print the night before?Explanation / Answer
Let x be the number of papers Scarface originally intended to sell.
The number of papers given to Patch = 2x/19.
Remaining papers = x - 2x/19 = 17x/19
Number of papers delivered door to door = 41
Remaining papers = 17x/19 - 41
Quarter of this = (17x/19 - 41)/4 (2)
Number delivered to grocery stores = 50*3 = 150
2/5th of remaining = [(17x/19 - 41)/4 -150] * 2/5 (3)
Adding Patch's 10 papers = [(17x/19 - 41)/4 -150] * 2/5 + 10
Half of these = ([(17x/19 - 41)/4 -150] * 2/5 + 10)/2
Subtracting Blackbeard's purchase and considering (2), papers left = ([(17x/19 - 41)/4 -150] * 2/5 + 10)/2 - 12 + (17x/19 - 41) * 3/4 + [(17x/19 - 41)/4 -150] * 3/5
Scarface's loss = $27.25
Total loss of the two pirates = 27.25 * 2 = 54.5$
Total number of papers printed = 54.5 / 0.25 = 218 papers
Substituting in (1)
218 = ([(17*x/19 - 41)/4 -150] * 2/5 + 10)/2 - 12 + (17x/19 - 41) * 3/4 + [(17x/19 - 41)/4 -150] * 3/5
218 = (17x-41*19-150*19*4+1900)/380 + (51x - 41*19*3) / 76 + [17x-41*19-150*19*4] * 3/380
218 = (17x-10079)/380 + (205x-11685)/380 + (51x - 36537)/380
218 = (273x-58301)/380
=> x = (218*380 + 58301)/273 = 517 papers.
Thus they printed 517 papers.
Related Questions
Navigate
Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.