Tom and Ryan have some blue staplers and some gold staplers. The number of gold staplers Tom has is equal to the number of blue staplers Ryan has. ³₄ of Tom's staplers are blue and ¹₃ of Ryan's staplers are gold. There are a total of 40 blue staplers. Find the total number of staplers they have.

Tom		Ryan		Total
Blue	Gold	Blue	Gold
	1x2	1x2
3x2	1x2	2x1	1x1
6 u	2 u	2 u	1 u	11 u

The number of Tom's gold staplers and Ryan's blue staplers is the same.

The number of Tom's gold staplers is repeated. The number of Ryan's blue staplers is repeated.  Make the number of Tom's gold staplers and Ryan's blue staplers the same.  LCM of 1 and 4 is 2.

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

8 u = 40

1 u = 40 ÷ 8 = 5

Total number of staplers
= 6 u + 2 u + 2 u + 1 u
= 11 u
= 11 x 5
= 55

Answer(s): 55