SOLUTION: Ali,s cat had a litter of kittens. She sold half the litter to a pet store. She gave half of the rest to a neighbor and half of what was then left to her best friend. Ali kept on

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Question 1003607: Ali,s cat had a litter of kittens. She sold half the litter to a pet store. She gave half of the rest to a neighbor and half of what was then left to her best friend. Ali kept one kitten for herself. How many kittens were in the original litter?
Found 2 solutions by josgarithmetic, MathTherapy:
Answer by josgarithmetic(39616) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
p kittens;
Half p to pet store, p-p%2F2 remain.

Gave half of that to neighbor, %28p-p%2F2%29-%281%2F2%29%28p-p%2F2%29 remain.

Gave half of that to best friend, remain.


Kept 1 remaining cat for herself.

Solve this equation for p.

Some careful use of Distributive Property, careful use of common denominator to form like-terms, then some additions and subtractions.

Answer by MathTherapy(10551) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Ali,s cat had a litter of kittens. She sold half the litter to a pet store. She gave half of the rest to a neighbor and half of what was then left to her best friend. Ali kept one kitten for herself. How many kittens were in the original litter?
Work backwards

Before giving 1%2F2 of the remaining cats to friend, she had twice the amount she kept, or 2(1), or 2

Before giving 1%2F2 of remaining cats to neighbor, she had twice the previous remaining number, or 2(2), or 4

Before selling 1%2F2 of the beginning number of cats, she had twice the previous remaining number, or 2(4), or 8



She started out with highlight_green%288%29



OR



After selling 1%2F2, she had 1%2F2 left

After giving away 1%2F2 of REMAINDER to neighbor, she had 1%2F2 of 1%2F2, or 1%2F4 left

After giving away 1%2F2 of REMAINDER to friend, she had 1%2F2 of 1%2F4, or 1%2F8 left

She kept 1%2F8 which represents 1

We can then say that: %281%2F8%29%2F1+=+1%2FC, with C being number of cats she started with

Number she started with, or C = 1%2F%281%2F8%29, or highlight_green%288%29