Question

Gerald had some green and yellow beads. The number of green beads was 1/3 the number of yellow beads. He gave each of his friends 2 green beads and 3 yellow beads. He then had 42 green beads and 270 yellow beads left.

a. How many friends did he give the beads to?
b. What was the total number of beads he had at first?

Answer 1

Explanation:

Let's use algebra to solve this problem.

Let's start by assigning variables to the unknown quantities. Let G be the initial number of green beads and Y be the initial number of yellow beads.

We know that the number of green beads is 1/3 the number of yellow beads:

G = (1/3)Y

After giving away some beads, he had 42 green beads and 270 yellow beads left. So we can set up two equations using this information:

G - 2f = 42

Y - 3f = 270

where f is the number of friends he gave the beads to.

Now we can substitute G = (1/3)Y into the first equation:

(1/3)Y - 2f = 42

Multiplying both sides by 3, we get:

Y - 6f = 126

Now we have two equations that we can solve simultaneously:

Y - 3f = 270

Y - 6f = 126

Subtracting the first equation from the second, we get:

3f = 144

So f = 48. He gave the beads to 48 friends.

To find the total number of beads he had at first, we can use the equation G = (1/3)Y:

G + Y = (4/3)Y = (4/3)(270) = 360

So he had a total of 360 beads at first.