<PRE><B>Question 1205027</B>
&lt;br&gt;
This would be a much more interesting problem, open to a large number of different solution methods, if it asked us to find the number of stickers each of them had at the beginning.&lt;br&gt;
However, since the problem only asked for the total number of stickers, there seems to be one path to the solution that is by far the easiest.&lt;br&gt;
After Mary gave 1/3 of her stickers to Gary, the ratio of Gary to Mary was 7:5 and Gary had 32 more stickers than Mary.  Given that ratio 7:5...&lt;br&gt;
Let 7x = Gary&#39;s stickers
Let 5x = Mary&#39;s stickers&lt;br&gt;
(That is one standard way of setting up a problem when a ratio is given; whatever value x has, the ratio 7x:5x is always 7:5.)&lt;br&gt;
Gary had 32 more stickers than Mary:&lt;br&gt;
7x-5x=32
2x=32
x=16&lt;br&gt;
And the total numer of stickers was 7x+5x = 12x = 192.&lt;br&gt;
ANSWER: 192&lt;br&gt;
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