# Boxxxing puzzle [closed]

I take a box and put $K$ mini boxes inside. Then I chose several of those mini boxes at random and put $K$ micro boxes in each. I continue this procedure indefinitely long. Thereby, at the end each box contains (directly) either K or 0 boxes.
I tell you that there are $M$ boxes, which are not empty. Tell me how many are there empty boxes?

## closed as off-topic by Deusovi♦, AJL, Ric, xnor, ghosts_in_the_codeOct 26 '15 at 5:00

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• "This question is off-topic as it appears to be a mathematics problem, as opposed to a mathematical puzzle. For more info, see "Are math-textbook-style problems on topic?" on meta." – Deusovi, AJL, Ric, xnor, ghosts_in_the_code
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• The Q is unclear. How does knowing $K$ and $N$ determine a unique solution? And if the process goes on forever, there must be an infinite number of boxes, isn't it? – ghosts_in_the_code Oct 25 '15 at 16:20
• @ghosts_in_the_code, you mean the answer is unclear?)) You ask about solution, not about question. You can read about this in The Dark Truth's answer. Or I got it wrong? And the process doesn't not go on forever, we just do not know how long it goes on. – klm123 Oct 25 '15 at 16:22

$Empty=1+(M\times K)-M$
$1$ (box we start with) $+(M\times K)$ ($K$ boxes we put $M$ times into another box) $-M$ (boxes that are not empty)