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 $s = \dfrac{d}{2}$ . Now,

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

So $d = \$288$ , $w = 3d = \$864$ , and $s = \dfrac{d}{2} = \$144$ .