How many stickers did Alice have at first?

Question

Alice had 3 times as many stickers as Ben at first. She put her stickers into packets of 16 and gave away 16 such packets. In the end, Ben had 3 times as many stickers as Alice. How many stickers did Alice have at first?

Answer 1

Let x = number of stickers that Ben had at first

 

Then Alice had 3x stickers at first.

 

After Alice gave away 16 packets of 16 she had 3x - 256 stickers while Ben still had all of his stickers.

 

At that time, (number of Ben's stickers) = 3(number of Alice's stickers)

 

                                                     x = 3x - 256

 

                                                    2x = 256

 

                                                      x = 128

 

Number of stickers that Alice had originally = 3x = 384