Mandy had 40% as many toys as Jonathan at first. Mandy gave 12 toys away and Jonathan gave 50 toys away. Then Mandy had 0.5 as many toys as Jonathan.

Question

Question: How many toys did Mandy have at first?

Answer 1

Hi Mai,

Mandy starts with M number of toys, and Jonathan has J number of toys to start. We know M=0.40J.

Mandy ends with x=0.5y, where x is the number of toys she ends up with and y is the number of toys Jonathan ends with.

 

Given M-12=x and J-50=y, we can start rearranging equations and plugging them in to each other.

 

We need to solve for M, so we might as well put everything in terms of it to cut down on excess calculations.

x=M-12 so M-12=0.5y, so y=2M-24.

M=0.40J so J=M/.4, so M/.4-50=2M-24.

 

Solve for M.