There were silver, brown and yellow beads in a bottle. Sean put another 7 silver beads and 14 yellow beads in the bottle, then the ratio of the number of brown beads to the number of yellow beads became 4 : 3. Then, he doubled the number of silver beads and removed 16 yellow beads. The ratio of the number of silver beads to brown beads became 2 : 1. He counted and found that there were a total of 29 beads left in the bottle. Find the number of silver beads that he had in the end.

	Silver beads	Brown beads	Yellow beads	Total
Before	4 u - 7	4 u	3 u - 14
Change 1	+ 7		+ 14
After 1	1x4 = 4 u	4 u	3 u
Change 2	+ 1x4 = 4 u		- 16
After 2	2x4 = 8 u	1x4 = 4 u	3 u - 16	29

The number of brown beads remains unchanged. Make the number of brown beads the same. LCM of 1 and 4 is 4.

Total number of beads in the end
= 8 u + 4 u + 3 u - 16
= 15 u - 16

15 u - 16 = 29
15 u = 29 + 16
15 u = 45

1 u = 45 ÷ 15 = 3

Number of silver beads in the end
= 8 u 
= 8 x 3
= 24

Answer(s): 24