SOLUTION: I have tried to solve the following GMAT math problem for hours! After spending 5/12 of his salary, a man has 140.00 dollars left. What is his salary? The choices given were :

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Question 739971: I have tried to solve the following GMAT math problem for hours!
After spending 5/12 of his salary, a man has 140.00 dollars left. What is his salary?
The choices given were : 200.00. 240.00. 300.00. 420.00 583.00
The answer is. 240.00 I just do not understand how they got their answer.
The answer is based on the following: the man did not spend 7/12 of his salary. Ok, I got that understanding. However, they say that 140.00 represents 7/12 of his salary(I have no idea why they say this?) Set up a proportion where S is equal to his salary:
7/12 is equal to 140 divided by S. The answer is 240.00.
I tried to figure out the value of 1/12 . Forget that.
Then I set up the following proportion: If 5/12 is equal to 140, then 7/12 is equal to what value.
The answer I got was 336.00. That was not one of the choices.
I am completely stumped. Kindly help me with this supposedly easy proportion problem.
Sincerely, Ellen Motoi
Answer by josgarithmetic(39623) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Spent 5/12 of salary, still has 7/12 of salary which is 140 dollars.
, where S is the salary.

dollars.