My question is: If Pete read twice as many books as Matt did last year, and this year he doubles that number while Matt reads only 50% more, how many books does Pete read across both years if Matt read 75 books in his second year? Your thoughts:
First, we need to find the amount Matt read both years to establish what Pete read, so to find Matt's first - year total we multiply 75 / 1.5 = 50 books the previous year. Since Pete read twice as many books as Matt did in the first year, and Matt's first - year total is 50, this means Pete read 50 * 2 = 100 books his first year. Since Pete doubled the number of books he read the following year, this means Pete read 100 * 2 = 200 books the following year. We add the two years of Pete's reading together to find 200 + 100 = 300 books read in total. The final answer: 300.