Phillip took 1/3 of the peanuts from the bag. Joy took 1/4 of the remaining peanuts. Brent took 1/2 of the remaining peanuts. Preston took 10 peanuts and left.

Question

Don't understand where to begin!

 

Answer 1

Draw a rectangle and divide in to thirds.

Label 1/3 as belonging to Phillip.

You will see that there are two areas remaining which represent the part that Phillip doesn't take.

Brent takes one of these blocks, and Joy takes 1/2 of one of these blocks which represents 1/4 of what remains after Phillip takes his.

Preston takes the last 10 - which is the same amount that Joy took.

How many did Brent take?

How many did Phillip take?

How many peanuts were in the bag to begin with?

 

There could other ways to interpret the problem, but a least one of them wouldn't start with an whole number of peanuts.