Question

150 workers were engaged to finish a job in a certain number of days. 4 workers dropped out on second day, 4 more workers dropped out on third day and so on. It took 8 more days to finish the work. Find the number of days in which the work was completed.

Answer 1

Let x be the number of days in which 150 workers finish the work.

According to the given information,

150x = 150 + 146 + 142 + …. (x + 8) terms

The series 150 + 146 + 142 + …. (x + 8) terms is an A.P. with first term 146, common difference –4 and number of terms as (x + 8)

However, x cannot be negative. x = 17

Therefore, originally, the number of days in which the work was completed is 17. Thus, required number of days = (17 + 8) = 25