The total number of tickets sold = 516.
Let the number of student tickets sold be S.
Let the number of adult tickets sold be A.
According to the given condition,
[tex]S\text{ = 3A \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\lparen1\rparen}[/tex]Also,
[tex]\begin{gathered} A+\text{ S = 516} \\ A+\text{ 3A = 516} \\ 4A\text{ = 516} \\ A\text{ = 129} \end{gathered}[/tex]Thus 129 adult tickets were sold.