3 of 4 Sarah and Henry share some sweets in the ratio 5:6 Sarah eats 16 of her sweets and the ratio of sweets left becomes 1:2 .How many sweets did Henry have?

Question

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Answer 1

Let x = Sarah's sweets

Let y = Henry's sweets

 

Since we are given the ratio as 5:6 we can write that as a fraction 5/6 and set it equal to x/y. 

 

Next we set up an equation for the second ratio 1/2. This will be equal to Sarah's original sweets minus the sweets she ate, divided by Henry's sweets.

 

So now we have two equations with two unknowns that we can solve by substitution.

 

5/6 = x/y and 1/2 = (x-16)/y