A man is employed to count Rs 10710. He counts at the rate of Rs 180 per minute for half an hour. After this he counts at the rate of Rs 3 less every minute than the preceding minute. Find the time taken by him to count the entire amount.
In the given problem, the total amount = Rs 10710.
For the first half and hour (30 minutes) he counts at a rate of Rs 180 per minute. So,
The amount counted in 30 minutes
So, amount left after half an hour
After 30 minutes he counts at a rate of Rs 3 less every minute. So,
At 31st minute the rate of counting per minute = 177.
At 32nd minute the rate of counting per minute = 174.
So, the rate of counting per minute for each minute will form an A.P. with the first term as 177 and common difference as −3.
So, the total time taken to count the amount left after half an hour can be calculated by using the formula for the sum of n terms of an A.P,
$S_{n}=\frac{n}{2}[2 a+(n-1) d]$
We get,
$5310=\frac{n}{2}[2(177)+(n-1)(-3)] \ldots(1)$
$5310(2)=n[354-3 n+3]$
$10620=n(357-3 n)$
$10620=357 n-3 n^{2}$
So, we get the following quadratic equation,
$3 n^{2}-357 n+10620=0$
$n^{2}-119 n+3540=0$
Solving the equation by splitting the middle term, we get,
$n^{2}-60 n-59 n+3540=0$
$n(n-60)-59(n-60)=0$
$(n-60)(n-59)=0$
So,
$n-59=0$
$n=59$
Or
$n-60=0$
$n=60$
Now let $\mathrm{n}=60$ then finding the last term, we get
$\mathrm{S}_{\mathrm{n}}=\frac{\mathrm{n}}{2}[\mathrm{a}+\mathrm{l}]$
$5310=\frac{60}{2}[177+1]$
$177=177+1$
$1=0$
It means the work will be finesh in 59 th minute only because 60 th term is 0 . So, we will take $\mathrm{n}=59$
Therefore, the total time required for counting the entire amount $=30+59$ minutes $=89$ minutes
So, the total time required for counting the entire amount is 89 minutes.