Web Results For:The ratio of john's money to Peter's money was 4:7 at first. After john spent 1/2 of his money and Peter spent $60. Peter had twice as much money as john. How much money did john have at first?

2 answers

let amount of John's money be 4x
let amount of Peters money be 7x

after transaction, John has 2x
Peter has 7x-60

7x-60 = 2(2x)
3x = 60
x = 20
John at first had $80 and Peter had $140

check:
John spent half his money , so he has $40 left
Peter spent $60, so he has $80 left
Does Peter have twice as much as John? YES!
Let peter have Jim have $4x. Then the given ratio means that Peter has $7x.

Since Jim spent half his money, he now has $2x dollars.

Peter spent $60 and thus now has $(7x-60).

The final ratio of Jim's money to Peter's money is therefore 2x : (7x-60). This is given as 1:2.

Now we just need to solve the proportion by cross-multiplying.

2x : (7x - 60) = 1 : 2

1*(7x - 60) = 2*2x

7x - 60 = 4x

3x = 60

x = 20. Therefore Jim originally had $4x = $80.