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26 votes
26 votes
In the Brady's Family, each girl has twice as many brothers as she has sisters.

However, each boy has the same number of brothers as sisters. Is this possible; and
if so how many girls are there in the family, and how many boys?

User Mateusz Rogulski
by
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1 Answer

24 votes
24 votes

Answer:

3 girls and 4 boys

Explanation:

Writing the number of girls in the family as g and the number of boys in the family as b,

we know that each girl has twice as many brothers as sisters. Therefore, the amount of boys in the family (b, or how many brothers each girl has) is twice the number of the amount of girls in the family (g) minus 1 (g-1) (subtract 1 because each girl's number of sisters does not include the girl herself). We can write this as

b = 2(g-1)

Next,

we know that each boy has the same amount of brothers as sisters. Therefore, the amount of boys in the family minus 1 (b-1, subtracting 1 because we don't include the boy that has the brothers) is equal to the amount of girls in the family (g). we can write this as

b-1 = g

Therefore, we have

b = 2(g-1)

b-1 = g

Plugging b-1 = g into the first equation, we get

b = 2 (g-1)

2(g-1) = 2((b-1) - 1) = b

= 2(b-1-1)

= 2(b-2)

= 2b-4

b = 2b-4

subtract 2b from both sides to make it so that only b values and their coefficients are on one side

-b = -4

multiply both sides by -1 to solve for b

b=4

Therefore, there are 4 boys in the family and b-1 = 4-1 = 3 girls in the family.

User Lize
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