Isabella has a bag of candy. She gives 1/2 of the bag to Kaleb. Kaleb gives 1/3 of the candy he now has to scott. If Scott has 5 pieces of candy, how many were in Isabella's original bag?

Answer 1

"Of" means to multiply. 1/3 of 1/2 of the original bag is 5 pieces.

(1/3)(1/2)c = 5

To divide by fractions, we simply multiply both sides by the reciprocal.

6(1/3)(1/2)c = 5(6)

c = 30

Isabella started with 30 pieces of candy.

Answer 2

So K = Isa/2

S = K/3

Scott has 5 pieces, which means Kaleb must have had 15. This means that Isabella must have had 30 to begin with.