A group of students equally shouldered the price of a broken laboratory instrument which is 60 dollars.If there had been three more students in their group, the cost of each share would have been a dollar less.How many students were in the group? (i need the equation also)

Question

anonymous · Answer

Let there be x students in the group. Then their share is 60/x. If there were (x+3) students their share would be 60/(x+3). According to the problem,
60/x = 60/(x+3) + 1
or, 60/x = (x + 63)/(x + 3)
or, 60x + 180 = x² + 63x
or, x² + 3x - 180 = 0
It solves to x = 12. So, there were 12 students.