CAT 1999 — QA Question 20
Answer the next 3 questions based on the following information.
A young girl Roopa leaves home with x flowers, goes to the bank of a nearby river. On the bank of the river, there are four places of worship, standing in a row. She dips all the x flowers into the river. The number of flowers doubles. Then she enters the first place of worship, offers y flowers to the deity. She dips the remaining flowers into the river, and again the number of flowers doubles. She goes to the second place of worship, offers y flowers to the deity. She dips the remaining flowers into the river, and again the number of flowers doubles. She goes to the third place of worship, offers y flowers to the deity. She dips the remaining flowers into the river, and again the number of flowers doubles. She goes to the fourth place of worship, offers y flowers to the deity. Now she is left with no flowers in hand.
The minimum number of flowers that could be offered to each deity is
Answer & solution
- A
0
- B
15
16
- D
Cannot be determined
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Starting from the fourth place of worship and moving backwards, we find that number of flowers before
entering the first place of worship is
The minimum value of y so that is a whole number is 16.
Therefore, 16 is the minimum number of flowers that can be offered.
Hence, option (c).