Q:

Is it possible to place 158 books on three shelves so that the first shelf has 8 fewer books than the second and 5 more books than the third shelf?plz halp

Accepted Solution

A:
We are given 158 books to place them on three different shelves like A, B, and C. It says that shelf A has eight fewer books than shelf B and five more books than shelf C. Mathematically, it can be written as (A = B - 8) and (A = C + 5). Or we can write it as (B = A + 8) and (C = A - 5). If we consider there are 'x' books in shelf A, then shelf B would have 'x+8' books and shelf C would have 'x-5' books. We know that Total books are 158, so its sum must be equal to total books. A + B + C = 158 x + (x+8) + (x-5) = 158 3x + 3 = 158 3x + 3 - 3 = 158 - 3 3x = 155 [tex] \frac{3x}{3} =\frac{155}{3} [/tex]x = 51.667 booksBut 'x' must be an integer value because number of books can not be a decimal form.Hence, this arrangement is "NOT possible" for this question.