Question

Andy and his friend Sam were walking along the road together. Andy has a big bag of marbles. Unfortunately the bottom of the bag split and all the marbles spilled out.
One third (1/3) of the marbles rolled down the slope.
One sixth (1/6) of them disappeared into the water drain.
Andy and Sam picked up all they could but half (1/2) of the marbles that remained nearby were picked up by other children who ran off with them.
Andy counted all of the marbles he and sam had rescued. He gave on third (1/3) of these to Sam for helping him pick them up. Andy put his remaining marbles into his pocket. There were 14 of them. How many marbles were in Andy's bag before the bottom split?

Answer 1

Work backwards. If there were 14 at the end, then multiply this by 3/2 because 2/3 of the marbles were given to Sam. so 14 times 3/2 is 21. There were 28 total because if you add 1/3 to 1/6 you get 1/2. So they they lost 1/2 of the marbles and got 1/4 of the original amount back, which was 21.
So the original number was 28. Hope this helps!

Answer 2

I'm PRETTY sure you have to do......
14 X 1/3 = 4.6
14 X 1/6 = 2.3
14 divided by 1/2 = 7,
- 1/3
so
4.6 + 2.3 + 7 = a
a - 1/3 = b
b = the answer
I'm PRETTY sure!!!!