On a school trip to the seashore, Alan and his friends collected shells. Alan collected four times as many shells as Ben did. Ben got a late start and only collected a third of what Laurie did. If Laurie collected 36 shells how many did Alan collect? Let's answer step by step:
Ben collected 36 / 3 = 12 shells. Alan collected 12 * 4 = 48 shells. The answer: 48.