+111 Fred had some marbles. He gave 1/4 of the marbles and another 34 marbles to Gillan. He then gave 3/8 of the remaining marbles and another 40 marbles to John. He had 580 marbles left in the end. How many marbles did Free have at first?
+191 We set all the marbles Fred has as X.
We can infer from the first sentence that: X - (1/4X+34) = 3/4X - 34 marbles is what Fred has after the first sentence
Now, 3/4X - 3/8(3/4x - 34) = 3/4X-9/32X+51/4 = 15/32X+51/4 is what he has after the second sentence
That suggests that 15/32X + 51/4 = 580, which means 15/32X = 2551/4, and find X to get the answer to the question.
