Problema Solution
After a game of marbles with his friends, Jacob said, "If only I had 1 more marble, I would have 4 times as many as Felipe, 5 times as many as Bella, and 7 times as many as Jessie." What is the least number of marbles Jacob could have had?
Answer provided by our tutors
let 'x' the number of marbles Jacob had
x + 1 is a multiple of 4, 5 and 7
since we need the smallest such number we need to find: LCM(4, 5, 7) = 140
click here to see the step by step calculation of LCM:
now we have:
x + 1 = 140
by solving we find:
x = 139
click here to see the step by step solution of the equation:
the least number of marbles Jacob could had is 139.