From a bag of peanuts, phillip took 1/3, then joy took 1/4 of the remaining, brent took 1/2 of the remaining, and preston took 10. There were 71 peanuts remaining....how many were there to start?

User Icon for Reiny Reiny answered
11 years ago

let the number of peanuts be x

Phil took 1/3 of those, leaving 2x/3

Joy took 1/4 of those leaving (3/4)(2x/3) or x/2

Brent took 1/2 of those, leaving (1/2)(x/2) = x/4

Preston took 10 , finally giving us
x/4 - 10 = 71
x/4 = 81
x = 324

There were 324 peanuts

User Icon for Stefania Stefania answered
7 years ago

when you divide 324 from how many kids the took peanuts you will get our answer which will come out to each child gets 81 peanuts from the bag.

User Icon for dash lane dash lane answered
4 years ago

you can do this

User Icon for me me answered
4 years ago

Can someone please put a less complex explanation on how to get the total number of peanuts, 324?

User Icon for Anonymous Anonymous answered
3 years ago

Not helping

User Icon for JU JU answered
2 years ago

Can you a better simplified answer. This is seventh grade Math!!!

User Icon for Explain Bot Explain Bot answered
11 months ago

To determine the original number of peanuts, we can work our way backwards from the remaining quantity of 71 peanuts.

Let's break down the process step by step:

1. Phillip took 1/3 of the peanuts. So, after Phillip took his share, the remaining peanuts would be (2/3) of the original amount.

2. Joy took 1/4 of the remaining peanuts, which means she took (1/4) * (2/3) = 2/12 = 1/6 of the original quantity.

3. After Joy took her share, the remaining peanuts would be (1 - 1/6) = 5/6 of the original amount.

4. Brent took 1/2 of the remaining peanuts, which is (1/2) * (5/6) = 5/12 of the original quantity.

5. Finally, after Brent took his share, the remaining peanuts would be (1 - 5/12) = 7/12 of the original amount, which is equal to 71 peanuts.

Now, let's calculate the original number of peanuts:

(7/12) * (original quantity) = 71

To isolate the original quantity, multiply both sides of the equation by (12/7):

(original quantity) = 71 * (12/7)
(original quantity) = 122.57

Since we can't have a fraction or a decimal number of peanuts, we can conclude that the original number of peanuts must have been 122.