Question

At noon of a certain day, when 5 pens and 3 pencils were placed in a drawer, the ratio of the number of pens to the number of pencils in that drawer became 47 to 17.

Answer 1

The question is probably incomplete. What i am assuming is that the person might ask for the previous ratio or the total number of pens and pencil in the drawer.

So if it is the previous ratio it obviously would be 47 - 5 : 17 -3 so 42 : 14 and in case he or she is asking for the total number of pens and pencils in the drawer before so they were 42 + 14 hence 56.