The answer is 24. think of x as the original amount, and y as the new amount. y times 1.5 is x, and y+12 is x. reverse that to figure out y, which is what we need, and you have x/1.5 = y as well as x-12 = y. Use the equal values method and make an equation x/1.5=x-12. solve this equation to get x, which is 36. to figure out the new amount, y, you need to subtract 12, which would help you get 24 as your final answer.