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6-86.

A cattle rancher gave of his land to his son and kept the remaining for himself. He kept  acres of land. How much land did he have to begin with?  

Drawing a diagram may be helpful.

                 A  line segment divided into 2 parts, labeled as follows: First section, top, 1 third, bottom, question mark. Second section, top, 2 thirds, bottom, 34 acres.

Portion given to his son.           Portion kept.

Try to find the amount the rancher gave to his son to find the total.

You can reason that the rancher gave his son half as much as he kept. Therefore, he gave his son acres of land.

You can find the total by adding the portion the rancher gave to his son to the portion he kept for himself.

You can also solve this problem by asking yourself: Two thirds of what total amount is ?

acres of land.