SOLUTION: Hi On Wednesday Bob had 150 stamps. On Tuesday he lost 16 stamps and had given away 1/6 of the stamps he had. On Monday he shared his stamps equally with his sister. How many di

Question 1193161: Hi
On Wednesday Bob had 150 stamps. On Tuesday he lost 16 stamps and had given away 1/6 of the stamps he had. On Monday he shared his stamps equally with his sister.
How many did he have on Monday.
Thanks
Found 2 solutions by josgarithmetic, greenestamps:
Answer by josgarithmetic(39617) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Several or a few steps with different quantity parts.
Going forward:
Monday - took away half of original
Tuesday - lost 16, gave away 1/6 of remaining
Wednesday - Now has 150 stamps.

Going in reverse from wednesday's results,

---------how many stamps he started with on Monday.
Answer by greenestamps(13200) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!

Exactly as written, the problem does not have a solution in whole numbers and is therefore faulty.

And the solution from the other tutor does not interpret the given information correctly.

There are two problems with the statement of the problem:
(1) The question "how many did he have on Monday" doesn't tell us whether the answer is before or after he gave half of his stamps to his sister.
(2) The statement "on Tuesday he lost 16 stamps and HAD GIVEN AWAY 1/6 of the stamps he had", with a correct grammatical interpretation, means that the 16 stamps were lost AFTER he had given away 1/6 of the stamps he had. That interpretation leads to an answer that is not a whole number. So the 16 stamps must have been lost BEFORE he gave away 1/6 of his stamps -- contrary to what the statement of the problem says.

Sorting out the problem so that it can have a valid solution, here is what happened:
Monday: started with some number of stamps, gave half to his sister
Tuesday: lost 16 stamps, then gave away 1/6 of what he had left
Wednesday: finished with 150 stamps

x = # he started with

number he had after giving half of them to his sister:
number he had after losing 16 stamps:
number he had after giving away 1/6 of what he had:

He finished with 150 stamps:

ANSWER: He started with 392 stamps

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In response to the parent who said his son copied this problem verbatim from the textbook....

I don't at all doubt that. People who write math problems often demonstrate a lack of understanding of English. It's sad, though, that the sloppy language gets past the editors/publishers of the textbook.

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