whole number and four operations

Question

samuel and riley had 104 stickers on all. after samuel gave away 20 stickers,riley had three times as many stickers as samuel. how many stickers did riley have?

Answer 1

r is number of stickeres Riley has

104 - r is the number of stickers Samuel has

3(104 - r - 20) = r

Can you solve for r and answer.

I assume that in elemntary school this might be done with tiles and not Algebra.

Answer 2

Between Samuel and Riley, they have a total of 104 stickers.

First, we have to find what the new total stickers are between Samuel and Riley

104 - 20 = 84

Now both of them have a total of 84

Because Riley has three times as many stickers as Samuel, she will have three parts of the 84 stickers and Samuel would only have one part of the 84 stickers.

We would have to break down the 84 stickers into 4 parts: Rileys 3 parts + Samuels 1 part

84 / 4 = 21

Now we multiply 21 by three to find the total stickers Riley has

21 * 3 = 63 stickers

Riley has 63 stickers and Samuel has 21 stickers