document.write( "Question 1208784: Adam, Ben and Calvin had a total of 540 marbles. Adam gave 1/4 of his marbles to Ben. Then, Ben gave 1/3 of his total number of marbles to Calvin. In the end, all the boys had the same number of marbles.
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Algebra.Com's Answer #847489 by MathTherapy(10552)\"\" \"About 
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document.write( "Adam, Ben and Calvin had a total of 540 marbles. Adam gave 1/4 of his marbles to Ben. Then, Ben gave 1/3 of his total number of marbles to Calvin. In the end, all the boys had the same number of marbles.\r\n" );
document.write( "(a) How many marbles did each boy have in the end? \r\n" );
document.write( "(b) How many marbles did Ben have at first?\r\n" );
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document.write( "The number of marbles REMAINED the SAME throughout all the back-and-forth exchanges.\r\n" );
document.write( "Since the total number they began with was 540, and since ALL 3 ended up with the same number,\r\n" );
document.write( "each ended up with \"540%2F3\" = 180 marbles.\r\n" );
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document.write( "Now, let amount Adam and Ben started with, be A and B, respectively\r\n" );
document.write( "After Adam gave \"1%2F4\" of his marbles to Ben, Adam then had \"matrix%281%2C5%2C+%281+-+1%2F4%29A%2C+%22=%22%2C+%283%2F4%29A%2C+or%2C+3A%2F4%29\" remaining\r\n" );
document.write( "Since Adam had 180 remaining after his exchange with Ben, we get: \"matrix%282%2C3%2C++3A%2F4%2C+%22=%22%2C+180%2C+3A%2C+%22=%22%2C+4%28180%29%29\"\r\n" );
document.write( "                                      Amount Adam started with, or \r\n" );
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document.write( "After receiving \"1%2F4\" of Adam's marbles, or \"A%2F4\", Ben then had \"B+%2B+A%2F4\". But, after giving \"1%2F3\" of his\r\n" );
document.write( "REMAINING marbles to Calvin, Ben then had  remaining\r\n" );
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document.write( "As Ben had 180 remaining after his exchanges with Adam and Calvin, we get: \"matrix%281%2C3%2C+2B%2F3+%2B+A%2F6%2C+%22=%22%2C+180%29\"\r\n" );
document.write( "                                                                         \"matrix%281%2C3%2C+2B%2F3+%2B+240%2F6%2C+%22=%22%2C+180%29\" -- Substituting 240 for A\r\n" );
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document.write( "                                              Amount Ben started with, or 
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