On a shelf 3/8 of the books are english books and 2/5 of the remainder are mathematics books. The rest of the books are science books. If there are 27 science books how many books are on the shelf altogther

1 answer

Let x be the total number of books on the shelf.

3/8 of the books are English books, so there are 3/8*x English books.

The remainder of the books is 5/8*x.

2/5 of the remainder are mathematics books, so there are (2/5)*(5/8)*x = 1/4*x mathematics books.

The rest of the books are science books, so there are 5/8*x - 1/4*x = 1/8*x science books.

Given that there are 27 science books, we have:

1/8*x = 27
x = 27*8
x = 216

Therefore, there are 216 books on the shelf altogether.