Question 48809
On Monday, Alice bought a bag of marbles. On Tuesday, she gave 2/3 of her marbles to a friend. on Wednesday, she gave away 1/3 of her remaining marbles. If she then had 8 marbles left, how many marbles did she buy originally?

Let "x" be the original number of marbles.

EQUATIONS:
 x-(2/3)x = (1/3)x
(1/3)x-(1/3)(1/3)x= (1/3)x - (1/9)x = (2/9)x
(2/9)x= 8
x=36 (original number of marbles)
Cheers,
Stan H.