Devout Ashwini prays at 4 temples in a row every Sunday. Ashwini starts with a certain number of flowers. Before she enters temple 1, she dips the initial flowers she is carrying in the holy river which magically DOUBLES the number of flowers she is carrying.
She offers a certain number of flowers at the first temple. Then she dips the remaining flowers in the holy river which doubles them before visiting temple 2. She offers the exact same number of flowers at temple 2 as she did at temple 1.
So the cycle of dipping flowers in holy river and offering flowers continues at temple 3 and temple 4.
When she comes out of temple 4, she has no flowers remaining and she has offered the exact same number of flowers at each temple.
What is the least number of flowers that she can have started with initially? What is the number of flowers she offered at each temple?
If the least number of flowers she carried initially is a and the number of flowers she offered at each temple is b your answer should be in the format a.b where a and b are separated by a decimal point.
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a is number of flowers carried initially. So its 2a after dipping. After giving b flowers at first temple we have (2a-b),
Dipping and giving at second temple = 2(2a-b)-b = 4a-3b
Dipping and giving at 3rd temple= 2(4a-3b)-b= 8a-7b
Dipping and giving at 4th temple= 2(8a-7b)-b= 16a-15b
we know 16a-15b=0
a=15, b=16.