Leaves and birds
Few humming birds came and sat on some leafs of a banana tree.
They first tried to have each bird sit on one leaf, but there is not enough leaf for one bird.
Then the tried to have 2 birds sit on one leaf, but there is one extra leaf that wasn't used.
How many leaves and how many birds are there?
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1 solution
Call H the number of hummingbirds, and L the number of leaves:
When each hummingbird sits on a leaf, one bird has no leaf to seat on, that is:
When two hummingbirds sit on each leaf, one leaf remains with no birds;
Replacing on the first equation we get:
and L = H-1 = 3