How many candy bars total word problem.

Question

Mary gave her mother 1/2 of the candy bars, she gave her brother 1/2 of 1 candy bar, she gave her grandmother 1/2 of the candy bars, she gave her sister 1/2 of 1 candy bar and kept 1 for herself. How many candy bars in all?

Answer 1

If Mary gave her mother half of all, and her grandmother half of all, then there's nothing left for bro, sis or Mary..

So you must mean something different, such as Mary gave 1/2 of the original number of candy bars to mother, then gave 1/2 bar to brother, then 1/2 of the remaining bars to grandma, which apparently left 1 1/2 bars for sister and herself.

So, let X equal the original number of candy bars:

(1/2)X + 1/2 + (1/2)(X/2-1/2)+3/2=X. Solve for X

X/2 + 1/2 + X/4 - 1/4 + 3/2 = X candy bars originally

7/4=X/4 or X=7.

1/2 of 7 = 7/2 to mom 1/2 to bro, leaving 7/2-1/2 = 6/2= 3 left

1/2 of 3 to grandma or 3/2. 3/2 for sis and Mary

There were 7 candy bars in all

7/2 went to mom, 1/2 to bro, 1/2 to sis, Mary kept 1 and gave 3/2 to grandma

7/2+1/2+1/2+1+3/2=7 total

sis & bro got 1/2 each

Mary got 1

grandma got 1 1/2

mom got 3 1/2