In a certain building in a business district, a newspaper
service delivers 104 papers every day to its customers, twice as
many customers have 3 papers delivered each day as have one
paper delivered, and three times as many customers have 2 papers
delivered each day as have one paper delivered. If no customer
has more than 3 papers delivered, then the number of customers who have
2 papers delivered each day is:
A) 16
B) 18
C) 20
D) 22
E) 24
you can solve it backwards if you want. The only answers that make initially sense are B and E because both of them are divisible by 3. Let’s try first anwer B: So if 18 people receive 2 papers, 6 receive one paper, and 12 receive three papers. The total amount of papers would thus be: 6x1+18x2+12x3=78 people. Thus B is incorrect. Therefore E has to be the answer.
You can check if it works: If 24 people receive 2 papers, 8 receive one paper, and 16 receive three papers. Total amount of paper: 8x1+24x2+16x3=104 papers.
Thanks for your reply. Even, I have solved it using elimination. Is there any way to solve it directly?. Any kind of help is appreciated.
You can do it using algebra. Suppose x number of people buying1 newspaper.
No of people buying 3 newspaper = 2x
No of people buying 2 newspaper = 3x
Total no of newspaper = 104
x+3 * 2x+2 * 3x = 104
13x=104
x=8
No of people buying 2 newspaper = 3x = 38=24