Question 195 Princeton GMAT Bible

[Guest]

Would you please explain this question for me:

Tom and Jean share some amount of money in the ratio of 7:4, if Tom has 60.00 More that 4/7 of the total, how much did Jean get.

Thanks.

[RonPurewal]

Would you please explain this question for me:

Tom and Jean share some amount of money in the ratio of 7:4, if Tom has 60.00 More that 4/7 of the total, how much did Jean get.

Thanks.

totally standard opener for this one.
when you're given unknown quantities in a fixed ratio, multiply the coefficients in the ratio by "x" to generate algebraic expressions.

this means that, in this problem,
tom money = 7x
jean money = 4x

the statement in the problem becomes
tom = (4/7)(total) + 60
7x = (4/7)(7x + 4x) + 60
7x = 44x/7 + 60
5x/7 = 60
x = 84
jean = 4x = 336