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Buying exactly 100 animals for 1000 dollars

Question

At a market, a farmer pays exactly $1000 for exactly 100100 animals, buying at least one cow, one sheep and one chicken. Cows cost $50, sheep $10 and chickens 50 cents each. If he bought x1x_1 cows, x2x_2 sheep and x3x_3 chickens, what is x1x2x3x_1x_2x_3?

Short answer

1520. From x1+x2+x3=100x_1+x_2+x_3=100 and 50x1+10x2+0.5x3=100050x_1+10x_2+0.5x_3=1000, eliminating x3x_3 gives 99x1+19x2=190099x_1+19x_2=1900. So 19∣x119\mid x_1; x1=19x_1=19 forces x2=1x_2=1 (and x1=0x_1=0 is excluded), hence x3=80x_3=80 and the product is 19⋅1⋅80=152019\cdot1\cdot80=1520.

Adapted from QuantQuestions.io; question and answer rewritten by SelfMadeQuant.com.

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