Ivory and Victoria had a total of 72 stickers. Victoria gave ¹₅ of her stickers to Ivory. In return, Ivory gave ¹₄ of the total number of stickers that she had to Victoria. In the end, each girl had the same number of stickers. How many stickers did Ivory have at first?

	Ivory	Victoria	Total
Before 1	?	5 u	72
Change 1	+ 1 u	- 1 u
After 1	48	4 u	72
Before 2	4 p	4 u	72
Change 2	- 1 p	+ 1 p
After 2	3 p (36)	36	72

Since Victoria gave some stickers to Ivory and Ivory then gave some stickers to Victoria, it is an internal transfer of stickers between the two girls. So, the total number of stickers remains unchanged.

Number of stickers that Victoria and Ivory each had in the end is the same.

Number of stickers that Ivory had in the end
= 72 ÷ 2
= 36

Number of stickers that Ivory had in the end = 3 p

3 p = 36

1 p = 36 ÷ 3 = 12

Number of stickers that Ivory had after receiving some stickers from Victoria
= 4 p
= 4 x 12
= 48

Number of stickers that Victoria had after giving to Ivory
= 72 - 48
= 24

4 u = 24

1 u = 24 ÷ 4 = 6

Number of stickers that Victoria had at first
= 5 u
= 5 x 6
= 30

Number of stickers that Ivory had at first
= 72 - 30
= 42

Answer(s): 42