Question 1061350

Thomas went to the store and spent half of his money and then $8 more.  He went to a second store, spent half of his remaining money and then $8 more.  Given that he had $7 left, how many dollars did he start with?
<pre>I'll do the problem from the beginning
Let initial amount he had, be A
After spending half of his money, plus $8 at the 1st store, he had: {{{matrix(1,3, (1/2)A - 8, or, A/2 - 8)}}} left
After spending half of the remainder, plus $8 at the 2nd store, he had: {{{matrix(1,5, (1/2) * (A/2 - 8) - 8, or, A/4 - 4 - 8, or, A/4 - 12)}}} left
Since he had $7 left, we get: {{{A/4 - 12 = 7}}}
A – 48 = 28 ------ Multiplying by LCD, 4
A, or initial amount he had was {{{highlight_green(matrix(1,3, 28 + 48, or, "$76"))}}}