Oscar and Tom have some gold staplers and some silver staplers. The number of silver staplers Oscar has is equal to the number of gold staplers Tom has. ²₃ of Oscar's staplers are gold and ¹₃ of Tom's staplers are silver. There are a total of 72 gold staplers. Find the total number of staplers they have.

Oscar		Tom		Total
Gold	Silver	Gold	Silver
	1x2	1x2
2x2	1x2	2x1	1x1
4 u	2 u	2 u	1 u	9 u

The number of Oscar's silver staplers and Tom's gold staplers is the same.

The number of Oscar's silver staplers is repeated. The number of Tom's gold staplers is repeated.  Make the number of Oscar's silver staplers and Tom's gold staplers the same.  LCM of 1 and 3 is 2.

Number of gold staplers
= 4 u + 2 u
= 6 u

6 u = 72

1 u = 72 ÷ 6 = 12

Total number of staplers
= 4 u + 2 u + 2 u + 1 u
= 9 u
= 9 x 12
= 108

Answer(s): 108