Expert: Richard J. Raridon - 6/25/2008

Question
a man dies and leave his estate to his heirs. The estate is divided as follows.
1st son gets 100 crowns + 1/10 of remainder of estate
2nd son gets 200 crowns + 1/10 of remainder of estate...etc
(n)th son gets 100 x (n)th crowns
each heir recieves same amount
how many heirs, what did each receive, and what was the estate?

Answer
Let E = amt. of estate
1st son gets 100+(1/10)(E-100) = E/10 +90
2nd son gets 200+(1/10)(E-200-E/10-90) = E/10-E/100+171
Since each son gets the same, set those two quantities equal to get
E = 8100 and each of 9 sons gets $900.
That's a neat problem.