Question

A group of friends decided to start collecting stamps. Each week they would collect the international stamps from mail to their houses, and share them equally between the group. In the first week, the group collected a total of 72 stamps. In the second week, 3 more people joined the group, and the group collected a total of 48 stamps. Each person in the group received twice the number of stamps in the first week than in the second week. How many people were in the group in the first week?​

Answer 1

9

Let x be the number of people in the group in the first week.

Each person got (72/x) stamps each the first week

Each person got (48/x+3) stamps each the second week.

2(48)/x+3 = 72/x

Using cross multiplication,

96x = 72(x+3)

96x = 72x + 216

24x = 216

x = 9

Therefore, there were 9 people in the group in the first week.