2010 AMC 8 Problems/Problem 21

Problem

Hui is an avid reader. She bought a copy of the best seller Math is Beautiful. On the first day, Hui read $1/5$ of the pages plus $12$ more, and on the second day she read $1/4$ of the remaining pages plus $15$ pages. On the third day she read $1/3$ of the remaining pages plus $18$ pages. She then realized that there were only $62$ pages left to read, which she read the next day. How many pages are in this book?

$\textbf{(A)}\ 120 \qquad\textbf{(B)}\ 180\qquad\textbf{(C)}\ 240\qquad\textbf{(D)}\ 300\qquad\textbf{(E)}\ 360$

Solution

Let $x$ be the number of pages in the book. After the first day, Hui had $4x/5-12$ pages left to read. After the second, she had $(3/4)(4x/5-12]-15 = 3x/5-24$ left. After the third, she had $(2/3)(3x/5-24]-18=2x/5-34$ left. This is equivalent to $62.$

$\begin{align*} \frac{2x}{5}-34&=62\\ 2x - 170 &= 310\\ 2x &= 480\\ x &= \boxed{\textbf{(C)}\ 240} \end{align*}$

2010 AMC 8 (Problems • Answer Key • Resources)
Preceded by Problem 20	Followed by Problem 22
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2010 AMC 8 Problems/Problem 21

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