Question

Dad arrives home from work with his paycheck. He gives two-thirds of it to his dear wife. She then

gives one-fourth of her share to her 3 children so that each child gets an equal amount. Her daughter
then gives one-third of her allowance to her friend for helping her with her chores. The friend spends
one-half of this money buying 4 songs to download to her iPod. If each song cost the same amount,
how much did one song cost if the original amount of the paycheck was $864?

Answer 1

$2

Explanation:

We can work through the allocation of the $864 paycheck to determine the amount allocated to each song.

Shares

Dad's dear wife gets 2/3 of the $864 paycheck, or $576.

The wife's daughter gets 1/3 of 1/4 of the wife's share, or $48.

The daughter's friend gets 1/3 of the daughter's share, or $16.

Each song gets 1/4 of 1/2 of the friend's share, or $2.

The cost of one song was $2.

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Additional comment

"Of" means "times," so 1/4 of 1/2 of $16 is ...

(1/4)×(1/2)×$16 = $16/8 = $2