Posted by Adi on Saturday, March 3, 2012 at 3:33am.
x= total marbles
x-(1/4)x what he had after 1st round
(x-(1/4)x)-1/3(x-(1/4)x) what he had left after 2nd
(x-(1/4)x)-1/3(x-(1/4)x)-1/2((x-(1/4)x)-1/3(x-(1/4)x)) what he had left after 3rd round which equals 2 (the one he gave to Shavana and the one he kept)
(x-(1/4)x)-1/3(x-(1/4)x)-1/2((x-(1/4)x)-1/3(x-(1/4)x))=2
solving:
x-(1/4)x-(1/3)x+(1/12)x-(1/2)x+(1/8)x+(1/6)x-(1/24)x=2
Factoring out x and making like fractions
x(1-6/24-8/24+2/24-12/24+3/24+4/24-1/24)=2
x(24/24-6/24-8/24+2/24-12/24+3/24+4/24-1/24)=2
x(33/24-27/24)=2
(1/4)x=2
x=8
SO HE START WITH 8
he lost 2 the first round leaving him with 6
he lost (1/3) of 6 the 2nd round leaving him with 4
and he lost (1/2) the 3rd round leaving him with 2
Related Questions
Algebra - While playing marbles, your first opponent won half your marbles plus ...
Math - a bag contains 3 red marbles, 5 blue marbles, 2 yellow marbles, and 2 ...
Math - How do you find the answer for this: Pam is playing with red and black ...
math - in a jar of 40 marbles there are 12 red marbles 19 blue marbles and there...
MATH - Allen started out with x marbles. He doubled his number of marbles by ...
maths - Mr Tan had a box of marbles. 2/3 of the marbles were blue and the rest ...
math - Jane and Kathy are playing a game of marbles. In each game the loser ...
math - George has a bag of marbles. Inside the bag are 5 red marbles, 3 green ...
math - George has a bag of marbles. Inside the bag are 5 red marbles, 3 green ...
8th grade math - George has a bag of marbles. Inside the bag are 5 red marbles, ...
For Further Reading
