Question

Mike buys a large goldfish for $22 and food for his new friend

that costs $3. He receives a birthday with $5 in the afternoon.
Then Mike had $7. How much money did he start the day off
with

Answer 1

Mike started off the day with $27.

Explanation:

Using the information given to us, we can set up an equation. Knowing that Mike ended the day with $7, and the amount of money that he spent and received can help us set up an equation. The amount of money that he started the day off with, is unknown, and recognized as x.
`7=x-22-3+5`

To solve this, we can simply solve the numbers that we know on the right hand side, to get this:

`7=x-20`

Now, to get our final answer we must isolate x. We can do this by simply adding 20 to both sides. This cancels out the -20 on the right, and makes the 7 on the left become 27.

`27=x`

Therefore, Mike started the day off with $27.