__neo wrote:Secondly, can some please elaborate how to comprehend such language, what does inclusive mean here?

Inclusive means including both ends of the range.
For instance, here inclusive means tickets were sold both at 9:00AM and 5:55PM. That's why number of times tickets were sold is (8*12 + 11 + 1) = 108. That extra plus one is to include both ends of the range.

For example, there is one 5 minute interval between 9:00AM and 9:05AM. But tickets were sold both at 9:00AM and 9:05AM, i.e. 2 times.

Hope that helps.

__neo wrote:how do we know that 30 tickets were sold between 5:55 pm and 6 pm?

I'm afraid that I don't understand this one. Tickets were sold up to 5:55PM. Why are you bringing 6:00PM in the picture?

According to the question, 30 tickets were sold every 5 minutes from 9:00AM to 5:55PM, inclusive. That's how we know 30 tickets were sold every 5 minutes.

__neo wrote:...I am still unclear on one thing. The question states that 30 tickets are sold every 5 minutes.

So that means between 9:00 to 9:05 -> 30 tickets are sold ,and between 9:05 - 9:10 -> 30 tickets are sold.

Now when you say that between 9:00 and 9:05 actually 60 tickets are sold. are you assuming that 30 tickets that are sold between 9:05 and 9:10 are sold exactly between 9:05:00 and 9:05:59 ?

Can you please clarify on how 60 tickets are sold between 9:00 and 9:05 ?

Okay. Let me try to explain.

It's not like 30 or 60 tickets were sold between 9:00AM and 9:05AM. It's more like 30 tickets were sold at 9:00AM. Then the ticket counter is closed. Again at 9:05AM, the counter is opened and 30 tickets were sold. Then the ticket counter is closed again and so on.

Hope that helps.