- Aug 10, 2001
- 10,420
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If you know something about modular arithmetic, the following shouldn't be too difficult. If you don't, well, good luck.
Seven children are at a birthday party. A bowl full of jelly beans is distributed equally among the seven children with one jelly bean left over. The leftover jelly bean is fed to Mr. Fluffy. But before any of the children can eat his or her jelly beans, another child arrives at the party. All of the jelly beans are put back into the bowl and redistributed equally among the now eight children. This time there are six jelly beans left over which are consumed by a very happy Mr. Fluffy. Unfortunately a ninth child then arrives at the party, so the jelly beans have to be once again equally distributed among the children. There is again six jelly beans left over. What was the minimum number of jelly beans that could have been in the bowl at the start?
Seven children are at a birthday party. A bowl full of jelly beans is distributed equally among the seven children with one jelly bean left over. The leftover jelly bean is fed to Mr. Fluffy. But before any of the children can eat his or her jelly beans, another child arrives at the party. All of the jelly beans are put back into the bowl and redistributed equally among the now eight children. This time there are six jelly beans left over which are consumed by a very happy Mr. Fluffy. Unfortunately a ninth child then arrives at the party, so the jelly beans have to be once again equally distributed among the children. There is again six jelly beans left over. What was the minimum number of jelly beans that could have been in the bowl at the start?