7 Year old School question My 7 year old son was given this question as a sort of bonus question and although I managed to solve it using some really awful simultaneous equations I can't help but think there is a simpler more intuitive way to solve it. Afterall, it was given to a 7 year old.
The question is this:

Amir, Brett and Carly share some money.
Amir gets a third of the money.
Carly gets 5 times the as much as Brett.
Carly gets £84 more than Amir
How much money does Brett get?

Is there a really simple way to solve this? Any help is much appreciated
 A: A gets 1/3rd. C gets 1/3rd + 84. B gets 1/15th + 16.8. Total = 11/15th + 100.8. So 4/15th of the total is 100.8, 4 times total = 1512, total = 378. Let’s check:
A gets 128, C gets 212, B gets 43 - that’s why you check :-)
No, A gets 126, C gets 210, B gets 42, total 378 :-) A bit hard for 7 year old. I’d have done it at 10, but not at 7.
You could have solved with binary search for the total. 1200 is too much, 600 so too much, 300 is too little, 450 is too much etc. That is possible for a determined 7 year old IMO.
Or try total = 100, 200, 300, 400. Calculate what each one gets, and if total <= 300 you find that total is less than total. With total = 400 you find that total > total. Then you try the values in between. Can a seven year old use a spreadsheet?
A: An attempt to solve it with simple words ...
Brett gets $1$ part.
Carly gets $5$ parts
Carly and Brett get $6$ parts.
As Amir gets one third of the total, it is not difficult to derive that Amir gets $3$ parts.
Carly gets $2$ parts more than Amir: therefore a part corresponds to $42$ pounds.
