Question

Jeff sold half of his comic book collection. Two years later he decides to start collecting again. After buying 12 new comics, he now has a total of 35. Write and solve an equation for x as the number of comics Jeff had before he sold half of them.

Answer 1

Jeff originally had 46 comics before he sold half and then repurchased 12 to have a total of 35. We found this by setting up the equation 0.5x + 12 = 35 and solving for x.

Step-by-step explanation:

We need to write an equation for the number of comics Jeff had before he sold half of them. Let's denote this original number by x. Jeff sold half of his collection, then added 12 more comics to have a total of 35. This situation can be described by the equation:

0.5x + 12 = 35

To solve for x, we perform the following steps:

1. Subtract 12 from both sides of the equation: 0.5x = 35 - 12.
2. This simplifies to: 0.5x = 23.
3. Finally, divide both sides by 0.5 to find x: x = 23 / 0.5.
4. The original number of comics Jeff had is x = 46.