Two friends A, B decided to share a lot of apples. Each of them had half of the total plus half an apple in order. After each of them took their share 4 time, no apples were left.How many apples were there?	Pick one.
A) 250  B) 255  C) 254  D) 253  E) 251

Rationale: whenever the rate of reduction is ' half of the total and half of it ' , the answer is always ( 2 ^ n ) - 1 , where ' n ' is the number of times the process is repeated . here , the process is repeated 8 times . so answer is ( 2 ^ 8 ) - 1 = 255 answer : e
Answer: E