Question

Mr. Allen's will provided that his wife receive 1/2 of his entire estate and his three daughters would split the other ½ equally. If each daughter's share was $8,000, how much was the value of the estate?

Answer 1

Mr. Allen has three daughters and half of his state got divided between them equally. Therefore each daughter will get:

$\text{daughters = }\frac{\frac{1}{2}}{3}\text{ = }\frac{1}{2}\cdot\frac{1}{3}\text{ = }\frac{1}{6}$

Since each daughter gets one sixth of his state and we know that they get $ 8,000 we can calculate the value of his state by multiplying each daughter's share by 6.

$\begin{gathered} \frac{1}{6}\text{ = }\frac{8000}{x} \\ 8000\text{ = }\frac{x}{6} \\ x\text{ = 6}\cdot8000\text{ = }48000 \end{gathered}$

Therefore the whole state is worth $ 48,000.