Question

Alice and Julie start with the same number of pens. After Alive gives $16$ of her pens to Julie,Julie then has two times as many pens as Alice does. How many pens did Alice have at the start?

Answer 1

Let Alice and Julie start with $x$ number of pens.

When Alice gives $16$ pen to Julie then Alice has $(x-16)$ pens and Julie has $(x+16).$

Now, according to the question-

$x+16=2\times (x-16)$

$x+16=2x-32$

$2x-x=32+16$

$x=48.$

Hence, Alice and Julie both had $48$ pens at the start.