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1. Glenn and Jason each have a collection of tennis balls. Glenn said that if Jason would give him 3 of his balls they would have an equal number; but, if Glenn would give Jason 3 of his balls, Jason would have 2 times as many balls as Glenn. How many balls does Jason have?
Answer: 21
Solution:
Jason has 21 balls and Glenn has 15 balls.
If Jason would give Glenn 3 balls, they would have an equal number (i.e., 18 balls each).
If Glenn would give Jason 3 balls, then Jason would have 24 balls and Glenn would have 12 balls.
Thus, Jason would have 2 times as many balls as Glenn.
Detailed Solution through Equations:
If Jason would give Glenn 3 balls, they would have an equal number.
This implies that Jason has 6 balls more than Glenn.
If Jason has j balls, then Glenn has (j − 6) balls.
If Glenn would give Jason 3 balls, then Glenn would have ( j − 9) balls and Jason would have (j + 3) balls.
Now, Jason would have 2 times as many balls as Glenn.
This may be written in the form of the following equation.
j + 3 = 2 (j − 9)
The equation may be solved as follows.
1 j = 3 + 2 × 9 = 21 ; or
j = 21 / 1 = 21.
Food for thought:
Can you solve this puzzle without writing any equations?
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