Question

Sarah had a bag of cherries .
She ate 5 cherries, then gave half of what she had left to Liam .
Liam ate 5 cherries, then gave half of what he had left to Amy .
Amy got 2 cherries .
How many cherries did Sarah have in her bag at the start ?
Show your working .

Answer 1

(S - 5)/2 = L where S is the no of cherries Sarah had
(L - 5)/2 = A where L is the no of cherries that Liam had
A=2 where A is the no of cherries for Amy

from here it's an easy solution for S