Question

Mother baked some cookies. She gave ( 2/5 ) of the cookies to her neighbor and ( 1/3 ) of the rest to her sister. She kept the remaining 135 cookies to herself.

(A) True
(B) False

Answer 1

The problem is a mathematical question involving fractions and unknowns. By working backward, we deduce the original number of cookies must be a whole number, but this leads to an impossible result; hence, the statement is 'False'.

Step-by-step explanation:

The subject of the question is mathematics. The student's question does not carry enough information to determine if the statement is true or false because we aren't given the total number of cookies mother had before she started giving them away. To solve these types of problems, we work backward from the remaining amount. If mother kept 135 cookies, which represent the remaining amount after giving (1/3) to her sister of what was left after giving (2/5) to the neighbor, we need to find what constitutes "the rest" after she gave some to the neighbor and then find the initial total.

Here's a step-by-step approach:

1. Let the total number of cookies be 'x'.
2. After giving away (2/5) to the neighbor, she has (3/5)x left.
3. Then she gives (1/3) of (3/5)x to her sister, which is (1/3)*(3/5)x = (1/5)x.
4. Thus, she is left with (3/5)x - (1/5)x = (2/5)x cookies.
5. The problem states that after this she has 135 cookies, so (2/5)x = 135.
6. Solving for x gives us x = (135 * 5) / 2 = 337.5, which is not possible since the number of cookies must be a whole number.

Given this result, the statement cannot be true, so the answer is B False.