1550.27 – Mr. Adams's Will

Mr. Adams departed our planet in 1875. He left $1872 in his will, an amount that in today's dollars would be nearly $40,000. (You can find out about these things on Google.) His instructions were that it was to be divided among his widow, 3 sons and 2 daughters. The widow's share was to be 3 times the amount either daughter received, while each son got only half of what each daughter received. How much did each person receive?

Solution

We are given $w = 3d$ and $s = d/2$ . Now,

\begin{aligned} 1872 &=& w + 2d + 3 s \\ &=& 3d + 2 d + \frac{3s}{2} \\ &=& 6.5 d. \end{aligned}

So d = $288, w = 3 d =$ 864, and s = d/2 = $144.