Kraken and seven other pirates agreed to share a pile of gold pieces equally. right before they divided up the gold, two more pirates showed up and demanded to be included, so the gold ended up getting divided among ten pirates instead. kraken received 40 fewer pieces of gold than he would have if the two extra pirates hadn't arrived. how many pieces of gold did kraken receive?

When there were 8 pirates (Kraken and seven other pirates), they divided gold pieces equally. Let's assume each one got 'x' pieces. So total gold pieces were '8x'.

When two more pirates showed up and they became total 10 pirates to divide gold pieces equally. Let's assume each one got 'y' pieces. So total gold pieces were '10y'.

But the quantity of gold was same as before. It means 10y = 8x.

It also says "Kraken received 40 fewer pieces of gold than he would have if the two extra pirates hadn't arrived". It means x = 40 + y.

Substituting x = 40 + y into 10y = 8x;

10y = 8(40+y)

10y = 320 + 8y

10y - 8y = 320

2y = 320

y = 160.

Hence, Kraken received 160 pieces of gold.

72 is the answer to this problem