Question

Katie lent her friend thirty dollars. her friend paid her back some money and now owes katie seventeen dollars. how much debt did katie’s friend pay back? write and solve the equation for this problem.

Answer 1

To find out how much Katie’s friend repaid, we subtract the remaining debt from the original debt. The equation is 30 - x = 17, which solves to x = 13. Hence, the friend paid back thirteen dollars.

Step-by-step explanation:

Katie lent her friend thirty dollars, and now her friend owes her seventeen dollars. To determine how much debt Katie’s friend paid back, we would set up a simple subtraction equation since paying back debt reduces the amount owed. If Katie's friend originally owed thirty dollars, we subtract the amount still owed (seventeen dollars) from the original debt.

The equation would be: Original Debt - Amount Paid Back = Remaining Debt, which translates to:

30 - x = 17

To solve for x, which represents the amount paid back, we simply add x to both sides of the equation and subtract 17 from 30, which leads us to:

30 - 17 = x

13 = x

Therefore, Katie’s friend paid back thirteen dollars.