A team of workers was employed by a contractor who undertook to finish 360 pieces of an article in a certain number of days. Making four more pieces per day than was planned, they could complete the job a day ahead of schedule. How many days did they take to complete the job ?

Solution(By Examveda Team)

Let the team take x days to finish 360 pieces
Then, number of pieces made each day = $$\frac{{360}}{x}$$
More number of pieces per day, Less days (Indirect proportion)
$$\eqalign{ & \therefore \,\left( {\frac{{360}}{x} + 4} \right):\frac{{360}}{x}::x:\left( {x - 1} \right) \cr & \Leftrightarrow \left( {\frac{{360}}{x} + 4} \right) \left( {x - 1} \right) = \frac{{360}}{x} \times x \cr & \Leftrightarrow 360 - \frac{{360}}{x} + 4x - 4 = 360 \cr & \Leftrightarrow 4x - \frac{{360}}{x} - 4 = 0 \cr & \Leftrightarrow x - \frac{{90}}{x} - 1 = 0 \cr & \Leftrightarrow {x^2} - x - 90 = 0 \cr & \Leftrightarrow \left( {x - 10} \right)\left( {x + 9} \right) = 0 \cr & \Leftrightarrow x = 10 \cr} $$