Free notebooks were distributed equally among the children of a class. The number of notebooks each child got was 1/8th of the number of children. Had the number of children been half, each child would have got 16 notebooks. How many notebooks were distributed in total?

Free notebooks were distributed equally among the children of a class. The number of notebooks each child got was 1/8th of the number of children. Had the number of children been half, each child would have got 16 notebooks. How many notebooks were distributed in total? Correct Answer 512

Given:

Number of notebooks each child gets was 1/8^th of total number of children

If number of children becomes half then each child would have got 16 notebooks

Calculation:

Let the number of children be ‘a’

⇒ Number of books that each child will get = a/8

⇒ Total books distributed = a × a/8 = a²/8

If number of children becomes half,

⇒ Number of children = a/2

⇒ Total books distributed = a/2 × 16 = 8a

As number of notebooks is same,

⇒ a²/8 = 8a

⇒ a = 64

⇒ Total notebooks distributed = 64 × 8

⇒ Total notebooks distributed = 512

∴ 512 notebooks were distributed in total.