Question

Al saves pennies. He agreed to give 1/2 of his pennies to Bev is she would give 1/2 of what she got from Al to Carl and if Carl in turn would give 1/2 of what he got from Bev to Dani. Bev, Carl, and Dani agreed and Dani received 6 pennies. How many pennies did Al have initially?

Answer 1

`48\text{ pennies}`

Step-by-step explanation

Let the number of pennies Al has be x.

Bev gave 1/2 of what she got from Al to Carl, which means that Bev gave:

`\begin{gathered} (1)/(2)\cdot(1)/(2)\cdot x \\ \Rightarrow(1)/(4)x \end{gathered}`

Carl gave 1/2 of what he got from Bev to Dani, which means that Carl gave:

`\begin{gathered} (1)/(2)\cdot((1)/(4)x) \\ \Rightarrow(1)/(8)x \end{gathered}`

That is the number that Dani received.

We have that Dani received 6 pennies which means:

`(1)/(8)x=6`

Solve for x by multiplying both sides by 8: