Four kids: Aaron, Bessy, Carl and Dawn play with beads. They start with 200 beads in all. Aaron gave Bessy 26 beads, Bessy gave Carl 36 beads, Carl gave dawn 32 beads, and Dawn gave Aaron 4 beads. They end up with the same number of beads as each other. How many beads did Aaron have at the beginning?

72 beads

Step-by-step explanation:

Let's call the the inicial number of beads Aaron has 'A', Bessy has 'B', Carl has 'C' and Dawn has 'D'.

First, we have A + B + C + D = 200

Aaron gives 26 and receives 4, so Aaron has A' = A - 22

Bessy gives 36 and receives 26, so Bessy has B' = B - 10

Carl gives 32 and receives 36, so Carl has C' = C + 4

Dawn gives 4 and receives 32, so Dawn has D' = D + 28

And in the end we have A' = B' = C' = D'.

The total number of beads is still 200, so we have:

A' + B' + C' + D' = 200

A' + A' + A' + A' = 200

A' = 50

A - 22 = 50

A = 72 beads