A store had some shirts on a rack. By 12:00, half of them were gone. then another fourth was gone by 3:00. Now there are 12 shirts left. How many shirts were there at first?

Answer 1

Let's represent this situation with some expressions where x = the original number of shirts, and show how many shirts are left at that given time.

12:00 = 1/2x

3:00 = 1/2x - 1/4x = 1/4x = 12

We can solve this equation to determine the number of shirts there were at first

1/4x = 12

x = 48

There were 48 shirts at first.