Elijah had 140 coins. ³₄ were gold and the rest were pink and yellow. The ratio of the number of pink coins to the number of yellow coins was 1 : 4. Elijah decided to give away some gold coins to decrease the number of gold coins to half of the total number of coins.

1. How many more gold coins than pink coins did he have at first?
2. How many gold coins did he have to give away?

Gold coins	Pink coins	Yellow coins	Total
3x5	1x5
	1x1	4x1
15 u	1 u	4 u	140

	Gold coins	Pink coins	Yellow coins
Before	15 u	1 u	4 u
Change	- ?
After	5 u	5 u
Comparing gold, pink and yellow coins in the end	1	1

(a)
The total number of pink coins and yellow coins is repeated. Make the total number of pink coins and yellow coins the same.  LCM of 1 and 5 is 5.

Total number of coins at first
= 15 u + 1 u + 4 u
= 20 u

20 u = 140

1 u = 140 ÷ 20 = 7

Number of more gold coins than pink coins at first
= 15 u - 1 u
= 14 u
= 14 x 7
= 98

(b)
Number of more gold coins that Elijah had to give away
= 15 u - 5 u
= 10 u
= 10 x 7
= 70

Answer(s): (a) 98; (b) 70