A gentleman who died recently left just over $8000 to be divided between his widow, his five sons, and four daughters. He stipulated that every son should receive three times as much as a daughter, and that every daughter should receive twice as much as their mother. If the precise amount left by the man was $8000.07, how much did the widow receive?
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The Answer:
Since each daughter get twice what the widow gets, each daughter can be expressed as 2W (W stands for widow). Each son gets 3 times a daughter, written as 3x daughter, or 3x2W, which is 6W. Since there are 5 sons, 4 daughters and 1 widow, the inheritance can be written as:
5(6W) + 4(2W) + 1W = $8000.07
Which simplifies to:
30W + 8W + 1W = $8000.07And further simplifies to:
39W = $8000.07Solving for W (the widow's inheritance):
W = $8000.07/39Simplifies to:
W = $205.13Therefore the widow received $205.13.
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Last updated October 10th, 2003