An apple seller is hosting a competition. He offers 1000 apples and...........will you be able to win a thousand apples?

Question

An apple seller is hosting a competition. He offers 1000 apples and 10 boxes to the people who pass by. The challenge is to put those 1000 apples in the 10 boxes in such a manner that if he asks for any amount of apples, the person is able to directly give him the boxes or a combination of boxes. If the person can do it, he promises to give a thousand apples for free.

If you happen to pass by the apple seller, will you be able to win a thousand apples?

Answer 1

Use powers of 2-- 2^0 to 2^9 which sums up to 2^10=1024 so the box number 10 will have minus 24 apples. 1,2,4,8, ... , 256 (total 511) and 489 to make 1000.
Any number less than 1000 can be made by the combination of the boxes.

Comments

thanks, corrected