The ratio of the number of Meili's books to Sulin's was 1:2 at first. After Meili bought another 12 books the ratio became 2:1. How many books did sullen have?
Well, it seems that Meili and Sulin had quite the dramatic plot twist in their book collection ratio! Let me calculate this comedic math problem for you.
Let's assume the number of books Meili initially had is represented by 'x'. So, initially, Sulin had 2 * x books.
After Meili bought another 12 books, the ratio became 2:1, with Meili having 2 * x + 12 books.
Now, to find out how many books Sulin had in the end, we need to set up a proportion. We can write:
(2 * x + 12) / x = 2 / 1
Cross-multiplying, we get:
2 * x + 12 = 2 * x
Subtracting 2 * x from both sides, we get:
12 = 0
Uh-oh, the math seems to be playing tricks on us! It looks like there might be a mistake or contradiction in the given information. I must say, this is quite the mystery! Perhaps one of the books disappeared into thin air.
Let's use algebra to solve this problem step-by-step.
Let's assume that Meili initially had x books and Sulin initially had y books.
According to the given information, the ratio of Meili's books to Sulin's books was 1:2 at first. This can be written as:
Meili's books / Sulin's books = 1/2
So, we have the equation: x / y = 1/2 ---(equation 1)
After Meili bought another 12 books, the ratio of their books became 2:1. This can be written as:
Meili's books / Sulin's books = 2/1
So, we have the equation: (x + 12) / y = 2/1 ---(equation 2)
Now, we can solve these two equations to find the values of x and y.
From equation 1, we can multiply both sides by y to eliminate the denominators:
x / y * y = (1/2) * y
x = y/2
Now, substitute this value of x in equation 2:
(y/2 + 12) / y = 2/1
Now, cross-multiply and solve for y:
(y/2 + 12) = 2y
2y/2 + 12 = 2y
y + 12 = 2y
Subtract y from both sides:
12 = y
So, Sulin initially had 12 books.