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1. Glenn and Jason each have a collection of tennis balls. Glenn said that if Jason would give him 6 of his balls they would have an equal number; but, if Glenn would give Jason 6 of his balls, Jason would have 4 times as many balls as Glenn. How many balls does Jason have?
Answer: 26

Solution:

Jason has 26 balls and Glenn has 14 balls.
If Jason would give Glenn 6 balls, they would have an equal number (i.e., 20 balls each).

If Glenn would give Jason 6 balls, then Jason would have 32 balls and Glenn would have 8 balls.
Thus, Jason would have 4 times as many balls as Glenn.

Detailed Solution through Equations:

If Jason would give Glenn 6 balls, they would have an equal number.
This implies that Jason has 12 balls more than Glenn.

If Jason has j balls, then Glenn has (j − 12) balls.

If Glenn would give Jason 6 balls, then Glenn would have ( j − 18) balls and Jason would have (j + 6) balls.
Now, Jason would have 4 times as many balls as Glenn.
This may be written in the form of the following equation.

j + 6 = 4 (j − 18)

The equation may be solved as follows.

3 j = 6 + 4 × 18 = 78 ; or
j = 78 / 3 = 26.

Food for thought:

Can you solve this puzzle without writing any equations?

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