88.1k views
1 vote
A company was able to sell one third of the washing machines they had

imported. After selling 10 additional washing machines, they were left with
half of the imported machines. How many washing machines did the
company import?

2 Answers

0 votes

Start with the question you want to answer: "How many washing machines did the company import?"

Let x be the number of washing machines imported. The goal is to find the value for x.

----------------

The company was able to sell one third of the imported machines. So they sold (1/3)x = x/3 machines and are left with (2/3)x = 2x/3 machines.

Then they sell another 10 machines. So the count 2x/3 will drop by 10 meaning we now have 2x/3 - 10 machines left.

We are told that there are half of the machines imported left over, so there are (1/2)*x = x/2 machines left over.

---------------

Equate 2x/3 - 10 and x/2, then solve for x

2x/3 - 10 = x/2

6*(2x/3 - 10) = 6*(x/2) ... multiply both sides by 6 to clear the fractions

6*(2x/3) + 6(-10) = 6*(x/2) ... distribute

4x - 60 = 3x

4x - 60+60 = 3x+60 ... add 60 to both sides

4x = 3x+60

4x-3x = 3x+60-3x ... subtract 3x from both sides

x = 60

----------------

Answer: The company imported 60 washing machines.

----------------

As a check, let's divide this by 3 to get 60/3 = 20. The company is able to sell 20 machines at first (that batch where they sold one-third of the amount they imported). Then they sell 10 more machines to sell 20+10 = 30 machines overall. If they started off with 60 machines and sold 30 of them, then they have 60-30 = 30 machines left which is half the initial batch (because 30/60 = 1/2). This is one way to confirm the answer.

Another way to check the answer to plug x = 60 into 2x/3 - 10 = x/2 and you should get the same number on both sides after you simplify. I'll let you do this as practice.

User Fotis
by
3.5k points
1 vote
the answer is 40 laundry machines that they imported
User Arjen Poutsma
by
3.5k points