20 mangoes - Math Central

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Question from Mussharat, a student:

I have 20 mangoes and have to put them in 5 boxes such that the numbers will be odd numbers.Also I can't cut or take the seed out from the mango . What should I do. It's really confusing.
I'll be more than happy if you could help me.

Hi Mussharat,

I can help get you started. Suppose you have 10

mangoes and you want to place them in 3 boxes so that each box contains an odd number of mangoes. I am going to do this with two small boxes and one large box.

Here is my arrangement.

boxes and mangoes

There are 3 mangoes inside each of the small boxes and 7 mangoes inside the large box.

Penny

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