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There were some green and blue pens in a box. If 27 green pens were taken out of the box, there would be 1/3 as many blue pens as green pens. If 40 blue pens were added into the box, there would be 1/2 as many blue as green pens. How many pens were there in the box?

 Sep 28, 2021
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Let us consider that there were x blue pens and y green pens in the box.

Given that if 27 green pens were taken out of the box, there would be 1/3 as many blue pens as green pens. Then we have

x = (y-27)/3

This gives 3x - y = -27..............(1)

Also if 40 blue pens were added into the box, there would be 1/2 as many blue as green pens. Then we have (x+40) = y/2.

This gives 2x - y = -80................(2)

Now subtracting (2) from (1), 

we have x = 53 

From (1) we have y = 186.

Therefore, there was 53 blue pens and 186 green pens in the box.

 Dec 5, 2021

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