Imani spent half of her weekly allowance playing mini-golf. To earn more money her parents let her wash the car for $4. What is her weekly allowance if she ended with $12?

Answer 1

Hi Cece,

You've asked a great algebra question that involves turning words into an equation. Let's break down what we know part by part.

You can work forwards or backwards. For the sake of simplicity, I'm going to work this problem from what we know, which is that Imani ended up with $12:

Imani spent half of her weekly allowance playing mini golf. To earn more money her parents let her wash the car for $4. What is her weekly allowance if she ended up with $12?

$12 =

Imani spent half of her weekly allowance playing mini golf. To earn more money her parents let her wash the car for $4. What is her weekly allowance if she ended up with $12.

$12 = $4 +

Imani spent half of her weekly allowance playing mini golf. To earn more money her parents let her wash the car for $4. What is her weekly allowance if she ended up with $12.

$12 = $4 + 1/2a

I used the variable a to represent allowance since we don't know what her allowance is yet.

Since this is a two-step equation, you know that you need to start solving it by using addition or subtraction. In this case, you will subtract 4 from both sides of the equation.

12 –4 = 4 + 1/2a –4

Now this problem probably looks more familiar and like something that you are able to solve. I bet you can complete it from here.

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