Final answer:
To determine the number of cards in the original deck, set up an equation using the number of cards dealt to each person. Solve for the total number of cards.
Step-by-step explanation:
To determine the number of cards that were in the deck originally, we can set up an equation using the information given:
c = 7n + 2
Where c represents the total number of cards and n represents the number of cards dealt to each person. Since the number of cards in a deck is a multiple of 52, we can substitute that value for c:
52 = 7n + 2
Subtracting 2 from both sides, we get:
50 = 7n
Dividing both sides by 7, we find that n = 7.
Therefore, there were originally 7 cards in the deck.