Fiona and camila took a load of peaches to the farmers market. During the first hour , they sold 1/2 of the peaches plus 1/2 of a peach. In the second hour, they sold 1/3 of the remaining peaches plus 1/3 of a peach. In the third hour , they so,d 1/4 of what was left and 3/4 of a peach. During the final hour, they sold 1/5 of the peaches that were left plus 1/5 of a peach. Fiona and camila did not cut any peaches to make a sale, and they returned home with 19 whole peaches. How many peaches did they take to the market?

Before I start figuring, is there a typo in hour 3?

All the other hours they sold n/n+1 - 1/n peaches, but that 3/4 instead of 1/4 bothers me.

Nope.....I checked and it isn't a typo.

Please help Steve! This is due tomorrow and I have no idea how to figure this out!!!

To find the number of peaches Fiona and Camila took to the market, we can work backwards from the information given. Since they returned home with 19 whole peaches, we need to find how many peaches they had before each hour of selling.

Let's work step by step:

1. Final Hour:
- They sold 1/5 of the peaches that were left plus 1/5 of a peach.
- Since they returned home with 19 whole peaches, we can subtract 19 from the result of this hour.
- Let's call the number of peaches before this hour "x".
- After this hour, they had (x - 1/5x - 1/5) peaches remaining.

2. Third Hour:
- They sold 1/4 of what was left plus 3/4 of a peach.
- After this hour, they had ((x - 1/5x - 1/5) - 1/4(x - 1/5x - 1/5) - 3/4) peaches remaining.

3. Second Hour:
- They sold 1/3 of the remaining peaches plus 1/3 of a peach.
- After this hour, they had (((x - 1/5x - 1/5) - 1/4(x - 1/5x - 1/5) - 3/4) - 1/3((x - 1/5x - 1/5) - 1/4(x - 1/5x - 1/5) - 3/4) - 1/3) peaches remaining.

4. First Hour:
- They sold 1/2 of the peaches plus 1/2 of a peach.
- After this hour, they had ((((x - 1/5x - 1/5) - 1/4(x - 1/5x - 1/5) - 3/4) - 1/3((x - 1/5x - 1/5) - 1/4(x - 1/5x - 1/5) - 3/4) - 1/3) - 1/2(((x - 1/5x - 1/5) - 1/4(x - 1/5x - 1/5) - 3/4) - 1/3((x - 1/5x - 1/5) - 1/4(x - 1/5x - 1/5) - 3/4) - 1/3) - 1/2) peaches remaining.

Since they returned home with 19 whole peaches, we set the result of the first hour equal to 19 and solve for "x":

((((x - 1/5x - 1/5) - 1/4(x - 1/5x - 1/5) - 3/4) - 1/3((x - 1/5x - 1/5) - 1/4(x - 1/5x - 1/5) - 3/4) - 1/3) - 1/2(((x - 1/5x - 1/5) - 1/4(x - 1/5x - 1/5) - 3/4) - 1/3((x - 1/5x - 1/5) - 1/4(x - 1/5x - 1/5) - 3/4) - 1/3) - 1/2) = 19

This equation may seem complicated, but we can simplify it and solve for "x".