Question

One fourth of herd of camel was seen in the forest. Twice the square root of the herd had gone to mountains and the remaining 15 camels were seen on the bank of a river. Find the total number of camel.

Answer 1

Let the total number of camel be a. 

Then, 1/ 4a + 2 -`sqrt "a"` + 15 = a 

⇒ `2 sqrt "a" = "a" - 15 - 1/4 "a"`

⇒  `2 sqrt "a" xx 4 = 3"a" - 60`

Squaring both sides, we get 

⇒  9a² - 424 a + 3600 = 0 

⇒  9a² - 324 a - 100 a + 3600 = 0 

⇒  9a (a - 36) - 100 (a - 36) = 0 

⇒  (a - 36) (9a - 100) = 0 

⇒ a = 36 , a = `100/9` 

As 'a' has to be a natural number, no. of camels = 36