SOLUTION: I am not certain what type of problem this is my daughter has so I hope I have selected the appropriate topic. My email address has been entered for the answer as well. You are

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Question 985760: I am not certain what type of problem this is my daughter has so I hope I have selected the appropriate topic. My email address has been entered for the answer as well.
You are selling candy bars and sell 1/5 of them on the first day. You have 40 left. How many did you start with?
40 x 1/5
(multiply 5/5x 40 in order to get the common denominator) = 200/5 + 1/5 = 201/5
201/4 = 401/5
I hope that makes sense. Thanks
Found 2 solutions by jim_thompson5910, MathTherapy:
Answer by jim_thompson5910(35256)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
The question asks "How many did you start with?" so let's make x equal to this unknown amount

x = original number of candy bars

We have x bars to start with and we sell 1/5 of them. So we sell x*(1/5) = x/5 candy bars. Subtract this from x to get

x - (x/5) = 5x/5 - (x/5) = (5x-x)/5 = 4x/5

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

So we start off with x bars and sell 1/5 of them to end up with 4x/5 bars

This expression (4x/5) is equal to 40 bars because we know that we have 40 bars after we sold that batch.

4x/5 = 40

5*(4x/5) = 5*40 Multiply both sides by 5

4x = 200

4x/4 = 200/4 Divide both sides by 4.

x = 50

Therefore we had 50 candy bars to start with
Answer by MathTherapy(10556)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!

I am not certain what type of problem this is my daughter has so I hope I have selected the appropriate topic. My email address has been entered for the answer as well.
You are selling candy bars and sell 1/5 of them on the first day. You have 40 left. How many did you start with?
40 x 1/5
(multiply 5/5x 40 in order to get the common denominator) = 200/5 + 1/5 = 201/5
201/4 = 401/5
I hope that makes sense. Thanks
If you sold , then you're left with  of what you began with

Now you can ask: " of what number gives me 40?"

Translated into mathematical terminology, and with N being number you began with, this becomes:

 of N = 40





4N = 200 ------------ Cross-multiplying

N, or number you started with = , or  

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