Maria bought 7 boxes. A week later half of all her boxes were destroyed in a fire. there are now only 22 boxes left. with how many did she start?

Question

need to be in an equation.

Answer 1

Hello Jasmine,

 

You want to find out how many boxes Maria had before the fire, call that number x,

 

She bought 7 boxes, that makes altogether  x + 7 boxes

 

A week later comes the fire which destroys  1/2(x + 7); you need the parenthesis () because the one half multiples both x and  7.

 

Now the other half is also 1/2(x + 7) and it is the 22 boxes left

 

        1/2(x + 7) = 22

     2*1/2(x + 7) = 2*22

                x + 7 = 44

                      x = 44 - 7 =37

 

So Maria started out with 37 boxes