Jen has some rings. She gives 5 rings to Carrie. Now Jen has 7 rings. How many rings did Jen have at first? Write an equation to solve.

Answer 1

Let j = the number of rings Jen started with. If she gives away 5, that's j - 5, right? She has 7 now.

j - 5 = 7

We need to get j by itself. We start with addition or subtraction and do the opposite operation. We have to do the operation to both sides.

j - 5 + 5 = 7 + 5

j = 12

Jen started with 12 rings.