Clerks sorting files
Source: AIME II 2013, Problem 7
April 4, 2013
modular arithmeticAMCnumber theoryalgebraAIME
Problem Statement
A group of clerks is assigned the task of sorting files. Each clerk sorts at a constant rate of files per hour. At the end of the first hour, some of the clerks are reassigned to another task; at the end of the second hour, the same number of the remaining clerks are also reassigned to another task, and a similar reassignment occurs at the end of the third hour. The group finishes the sorting in hours and minutes. Find the number of files sorted during the first one and a half hours of sorting.