pieces of wood-gprep question

From the problem we get.....

(x1+x2+x3+x4+x5)/5=124 and because this is a 5 number serie x3=140

Combining both together we get...

x1+x2+x4+x5=480 [eq.1]

being x4 and x5 at least equal to 140 because 140 is the median.

Since we want to find the biggest value for x1, we want to majorate the numbers to the right of the median, i.e. x1 and x2 and minorate the numbers to the left, i.e. x4 and x5.

Let say that x4=x5=140, the minimum possible value

and x1=x2

Then from eq1 we get 2*x1=200 or x1=x2=100.

Hope it helps. Good luck