Question

Reema bought pencils for school in august. She gave 1/2 of them to her friends. She used 3/4 of what she had left for the first month of school. She now had 3 pencils left. How many pencils did she buy in august?

Answer 1

24 pencils

Explanation:

Let's call total number of pencils T.

she gave 1/2 to friends. Now she has (1/2)T.

she then used 3/4 of those, leaving her with only 1/4 of what she had AFTER giving them to friends. That is 1/2 X 1/4 = 1/8.

She now has 3 pencils. 3 pencils = 1/8.

Multiply both sides by 8 to get 24 pencils = 1 (whole ie T).

Total number of pencils, T, bought in August is 24.