On the first day, a patient takes one-third of all pills from a container. On the next day, the patient takes one-third of the pills that are left in the container. Altogether, he took 15 pills from the container.
How many pills were there where in the container, to begin with?
Answer: 27.
Let X be the number of pills in the container. Then, on the first day the patient takes 1/3X pills. On the second day the patient takes 1/3(X-1/3X) pills. Therefore, we have 1/3X + 1/3(X-1/3X) = 15. Solving for X, we get X=27.
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