Question 1189297: Hi
Stephen and Siew mei had $540 altogether. Stephen gave 1/7 of his money siew mei. In return siew mei gave 1/4 of the total amount she had to Stephen . Then they both had the same amount of money. How much did Stephen had at first.
Thanks
Found 2 solutions by ikleyn, greenestamps: Answer by ikleyn(52777) (Show Source): Answer by greenestamps(13198) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
There are many ways to set up this problem for solving. The solution from the other tutor is fine, and is a very typical solution.
I personally would choose a different starting point by looking ahead at the transactions to perhaps make the algebra required for solving the problem a bit easier.
Specifically, since in the first transaction Stephen gives 1/7 of his money to Siew Mei, I would start with
let 7x = amount Stephen starts with
then 540-7x = amount Siew Mei starts with
In the first transaction, Stephen gives 1/7 of his money, x, to Siew Mei. The amounts the two have are now 6x for Stephen and 540-6x for Siew Mei.
Next Siew Mei gives 1/4 of her money, 135-1.5x, to Stephen. The amounts they have are now 135+4.5x for Stephen and 405-4.5x for Siew Mei.
The amounts they have now are the same, so they are both half of $540, which is $270. So we can either solve the equation that says those two expressions are equal; or we can solve an equation that says one of those two expressions is equal to 540/2=270.




ANSWER: The amount Stephen started with was 7x=$210
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