Tim and Perry have some purple staplers and some grey staplers. The number of grey staplers Tim has is equal to the number of purple staplers Perry has. ¹₄ of Tim's staplers are purple and ¹₃ of Perry's staplers are grey. There are a total of 16 purple staplers. Find the total number of staplers they have.

Tim		Perry		Total
Purple	Grey	Purple	Grey
	1x6	1x6
1x2	3x2	2x3	1x3
2 u	6 u	6 u	3 u	17 u

The number of Tim's grey staplers and Perry's purple staplers is the same.

The number of Tim's grey staplers is repeated. The number of Perry's purple staplers is repeated.  Make the number of Tim's grey staplers and Perry's purple staplers the same.  LCM of 3 and 4 is 6.

Number of purple staplers
= 2 u + 6 u
= 8 u

8 u = 16

1 u = 16 ÷ 8 = 2

Total number of staplers
= 2 u + 6 u + 6 u + 3 u
= 17 u
= 17 x 2
= 34

Answer(s): 34