Rachel owes her parents $25 plus 1⁄5 of the amount in her savings account. If Rachel owes her parents a total of $43, write and solve an equation to find a, the current amount in her savings account.

Answer 1

Using the variable a to represent the amount of money in Rachel's account, we can

write 1/5 of that amount as : 1 a

5

Then she owes that amount plus $25 , we can add these two together: 25 + 1 a

5

Lastly, since she owes her parents a total of $43, we can write the following equation:

25 + 1 a = 43

5

Now use inverse operations to solve for a:

25 + 1 a - 25 = 43 - 25

5

1 a = 18

5

5 • 1 a = 18 • 5

5

a = 90

Rachel has $90 in her account.