Question

On Tuesday Jennifer bought 5 boxes. On Wednesday half of all the boxes were destroyed. On Thursday there were only 20 left? How many boxes did she half on Monday?

Answer 1

She had had 29 boxes on Monday.

Explanation:

Let m represent the number of boxes Jennifer had on Monday.

She bought 5 boxes on Tuesday which would bring the number of hats she had to m + 5

Half of her boxes were destroyed on Wednesday, so on Thursday she would have m + 5/2 boxes

We are told this number equals 17

so

m+5/2 = 17

m + 5 = 34

m = 29