Eugene and Jason like to share stickers. If Eugene gives 70 stickers to Jason, the ratio of Eugene to Jason's stickers will be 1 : 5. If Eugene gives 80 stickers to Jason, their ratio will be 1 : 8. How many stickers does Eugene have?
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Mmmmmm....I always like these kind of brain teasers !!
Let's call the number of tickets that Eugene has (before he gives any of them away) = x
Let's call the number of tickets that Jason has (before he gets any of them) = y
So..when Eugene gives 70 to Jason he has (x-70) and when Jason gets the 70 he has (y + 70)
And the ratio (now) of Eugene's tickets to Jason's tickets is 1/5.
So, this situation is represented by the following proportion:
(x-70)/(y+70) = (1)/(5)
And..when Eugene gives 80 to Jason he has (x-80) and when Jason gets the 80 he has (y + 80)
And the ratio (now) of Eugene's tickets to Jason's tickets is 1/8.
So, this situation is represented by the following proportion:
(x-80)/(y+80) = (1)/(8)
So...taking the first proportion and cross-multiplying we have
5(x-70) = y + 70 .......and simplifying, we get ..... 5x - 350 = y + 70 ... and after a little manipulation, we have..... 5x - y = 420
And...taking the second proportion and cross-multiplying we have
8(x-80) = y + 80 ........and simplifying, we get..... 8x - 640 = y + 80 ....and after a little manipulation, we have.....8x - y = 720
Now, I have two equations in two unknowns
8x - y = 720
5x - y = 420
If I take the second equation and subtract it from the frist, I end up with
3x = 300 ..... and "solving" for x, we have x = 100.... (This is the number of stickers that Eugene has)
Now, we could stop at this point, but let's make sure that our answer "works"
Using one of the two equations above, let's "plug in" for x and find out how many tickects that Jason has before he gets any from Eugene. Using the second equation above, we have
5(100) - y = 420... and simplifying, we have...500 - y = 420 ...and after a little manipulation, we have..........y = 500 - 420 = 80 ....(this is the number of stickers that Jason has before he gets any from Eugene)
Now...one more step.....let's "plug" both values back into both proportions to make sure everything "works"
Using the first proportion, we have
(100-70)/(80+70) = (1)/(5)
30/150 = 1/5....yep...that looks OK
Using the second proportion, we have
(100-80)/(80+80) = (1)/(8)
20/160 = 1/8 ..... and that's OK, too
Whew !!! ...that was a long one....but not really all that difficult....Just remember, "getting" an answer means nothing until we "check" it to make sure that it makes sense!!! .....