Pocket Money riddle
Last weekend I was given my pocket money, which is meant to last me all week.
On Monday, I spent a quarter of my money on clothes.
On Tuesday, I spent one third of my remaining money on a CD.
On Wednesday I spent half of my remaining money on sweets.
Finally on Thursday I spent my last £2.50 on a comic.
How much pocket money did I receive?
Answer: £10
Derivation:
1. By reverse calculation:
The final amount you had (which you spent on Thursday) = £2.50
This amount was left after you spent HALF of you had on sweets. As you spent HALF of what you had, what remained (£2.50) should also be HALF of what yo you had. Thus, before spending on sweets, you must have had £5.
Now, this amount was what was left after spending one-third of what you had, on CD. Since you spent one-third, what remained (£5) must have been two-third of what you had before spending on CD. Thus, the amount you had before getting the CD = £7.50.
Finally, this amount was what was left after spending a quarter of what you started with. Since £7.50 was the balance after spending one quarter, it means £7.50 was three-quarters of what you started with. Hence the initial amount (the pocket money you got) must be £10.
Put differently:
Let the starting amount be X. (1)
You spent one quarter thereof on cloths. Balance = 3X/4 (2)
Then you spent one-third of this on CD. Balance: 3X/4 x 2/3 = X/2 (3)
Thereafter, you spent half of this amount on sweets. Balance = X/2 x 1/2 = X/4. (4)
The amount remained was £2.50. Since this is one-fourth of what you originally had as per (4) above, X = 2.5 x 4 = 10.
Your Answer
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