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| Question 1190756:  the denominator of a fraction is 4 more than the numerator. If 3 is added to both the numerator and denominator, the new fraction is 2/3. What is the original fraction?
 Answer by Theo(13342)
      (Show Source): 
You can put this solution on YOUR website! let x be the numerator and y be the denominator. the fraction is x/y.
 you are given that the denominator is 4 more than the numerator.
 xince y = x + 4, the fraction becomes:
 x/(x+4)
 you are given that when 3 is added to both the numerator and the denominator, the fraction is 2/3.
 this gets you:
 (x + 3) / (x + 4 + 3) = 2/3
 simplify to get:
 (x + 3) / (x + 7) = 2/3
 cross multiply to get:
 3 * (x + 3) = 2 * (x + 7)
 simplify to get:
 3x + 9 = 2x + 14
 subtract 2x from both sides and subtract 9 from both sides to get:
 x = 5
 since y = 4 more than that, you get:
 x = 5
 y = 9
 the original fraction is x/y = 5/9
 add 3 to the numerator and he denominator to get 8/12 which is equal to 2/3.
 this confirms the solution is correct.
 the solution is that the original fraction is 5/9.
 
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