Question

Rachel has 60 scones. She sells them to Robbie, Cameron, Louis, Tom and Charlie in that order. Each customer buys more scones then the last and the increase is the same number in each case. Robbie and Cameron's combined total number of scones is three sevenths of the total of Louis, Tom and Charlie. How many scones does each boy buy?

Answer 1

Robbie bought the smallest amount. Let's use x for that amount.
Let's use n for amount that each following customer increases.

We have:
Robbie=x
Cameron=x+n
Louis=x+n+n
Tom=x+n+n+n
Charlie=x+n+n+n+n

We know that they bought total of 60 scones.
Robbie + Cameron + Louis + Tom + Charlie = 60
x + x+n + x+n+n + x+n+n+n + x+n+n+n+n = 60
5x + 10n = 60 /:5
x + 2n = 12

We are also given this information:
(Robbie + Cameron) = 3/7 * (Louis + Tom + Charlie)
We insert the equations from above:
(x + x+n) = 3/7 * (x+n+n + x+n+n+n + x+n+n+n+n) 
2x + n = 3/7 * (3x + 9n) /*7
14x + 7n = 3* (3x + 9n)
14x +7n = 9x + 27n
We take everything on the left side.
14x + 7n - 9x - 27n = 0
5x - 20n = 0/:5
x - 4n = 0

Now we have two equations:
x + 2n = 12
x - 4n = 0
We solve second one for x and insert it into first one.
x + 2n = 12
x = 4n

4n + 2n =12
6n = 12 /:6
n = 2
x=4*2
x=8


Now we can solve for the amount for each customer.
Robbie=x = 8
Cameron=x+n = 8 + 2 = 10
Louis=x+n+n = 8 + 2 + 2 = 12
Tom=x+n+n+n = 8 + 2 + 2 + 2 = 14
Charlie=x+n+n+n+n = 8 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 = 16