Question

Lee's summer job was to sell newspapers. He sold 24 in the morning. In the afternoon, he sold 2/7 of the remaining newspapers. The number of newspapers left was 1/2 of the number he started with at the beginning. How many newspapers did lee start with?

Thank you! I can't have any equations in the answer!

Answer 1

Given:
x = beginning number of newspapers
24 = sold in the morning
(x - 24) * 2/7 = sold in the afternoon
x * 1/2 = remaining newspapers

5/7 of the remaining newspaper is equal to 1/2 of the original number.

(x - 24) * 5/7 = 1/2 * x 
5x/7 - 120/7 = x/2
5x/7 * 2/2 - 120/7 * 2/2 = x/2 * 7/7
10x/14 - 240/14 = 7x/14
10x/14 - 7x/14 = 240/14
3x/14 = 240/14
14 * 3x/14 = 14 * 240/14
3x = 240
x = 240/3
x = 80

80 - 24 = 56 remaining newspaper in the morning
56 * 2/7 = 16 sold in the afternoon
80 - 24 - 16 = 80/2
40 = 40 remaining newspaper for the day.