Question

Mrs Olive gave her 4 children a sack of candy to share. Mark ate 1/2 of the candy in the sack and passed the sack to Rachel. Rachel ate 1/3 of the remaining candy and passed the sack to Fred. Fred then ate 1/4 of the candy that remained and passed the sack to Britany. Britany ate the last 12 pieces of candy. How many pieces of candy did Mark eat?

Answer 1

original amount = x
mark ate x/2, leaving x/2
Rachel ate 1/3(x/2) = x/6, leaving x/3
Fred ate 1/4(x/3) = x/12, leaving x/4
Britany ate 12 = x/4
so, x=48

check
Mark ate 24, left 24
Rachel ate 8, left 16
Fred ate 4, left 12
Britany: 12