Question:
Radha takes some flowers in a basket and visits three temples one-by-one. At each temple, she offers one half of the flowers from the basket.
If she is left with 3 flowers at the end, then find the number of flowers she had in the beginning.
Solution:
Let total number of the flowers be $x$.
Then, flowers offered in first temple $=\frac{x}{2}$
Flowers offered in second temple $=\frac{x}{4}$
Flowers offered in third temple $=\frac{x}{8}$
Number of flowers left at the end $=3$
According to the question,
$x-\left(\frac{x}{2}+\frac{x}{4}+\frac{x}{8}\right)=3$
$\Rightarrow$ $\frac{8 x-(4 x+2 x+x)}{8}=3$
$\Rightarrow \quad 8 x-7 x=24$
$\therefore$ $x=24$
Hence, total number of flowers she had in the beginning is 24 .