After losing 20% of their peach crop, a farm has 30000 pounds of peaches remaining. How many pounds did they have before the loss?

Answer 1

Let x = #lbs peach crop before the loss

Then .2x is how much they lost

So, 1.0 x - 0.2 x represents what was left of the crop, but that number is known to be 30000 lbs.

So the equation to solve is:

0.8 x = 30000

Or

4x/5 = 30000

So in first case divide both sides by 0.8.

In 2nd case multiply both sides by reciprocal of 4/5 which is 5/4. Choice is yours.

Let's use 2nd technique:

x = 30000 (5/4) = 7500(5) = 37500 lbs of peaches is original

Check: 0.8 (37500) = 30000