Little Mammu and the String

          ‘Mammu give me more string, I want to play telephone with naval ‘said my little girl Mammu.

          ‘More string, good god! I gave you so much this morning. What did you do with the whole ball I gave you? I exclaimed. 

‘Oh you took back half of what you gave me to its packages’, mammu countered.

 ‘You still have the other half of the ball’ 

‘Deepa took half of what remained, to pack some books and toys’

‘And what about the rest?

‘There was very little left and amid took half of what I had to fix his suspenders. Then pallavi took teo0 fifths of what was remaining to tie her pony tail’.

‘I see’

 ‘Now all I have left is 30 centimeter, can I possibly play telephone with 30 centimeters?’

How much string did I give Mammu in the first place?

Answer:       When I took half of the string there naturally remained ½. After Deepa took what she wanted there remained ¼ after amid ⅛ remained.

And after Pallavi              ⅛ x ⅗ = 3/40. If 30cm = 3/40 then the original length was 30. 3/40 = 400 cm or 4 metres.