1. ## false position

Hello everyone,

Could someone please explain to me how to do false position?

For example, "a quantity; its half and its third are added to it. It becomes 10. What is the quantity?"

My attempt:

The algebraic way:
x+1/2x+1/3x=10
x=10/1+1/2+1/3
x=60/11

False position:

Assume x=2

2+1/2(2)+1/3(2)=
11/3

we want 12, so 12/11/3=36/11

Does anyone see where I went wrong? It should be 60/11, not 72/11. Does anyone know of an easy way of choosing the x value?

Thank you very much

2. Right ill try this one...
I think you're supposed to pick x so that the fractions go.

In this case try x=6.

You get 6 + 3 + 2 = 11 which is not the right answer.

But if we multiply 11 by 10/11 we get the right answer so multiply 6 by 10/11 and we do indeed get 60/11 as you said.

Then you get 2 + 1 + 2/3 = 11/3 which is not the right answer but if we multiply it by 10*(3/11) we get the right answer so again multiply your x value by this to get 2*10*(3/11) to get 60/11 as required.

3. " we want 12"

no, we don't. that's where the problem was.