Question

The wind blew away 24 of your muffins. That was 3/4 of them! How many are left?

Answer 1

Set up a proportion:

3/4/24 = 1/x

Cross multiply:

3/4x = 24

Divide 3/4 to both sides or multiply by its reciprocal, 4/3:

x = 24 * 4/3

x = 96/3

x = 32

So you had a total of 32 muffins, now subtract this from the amount that blew away to find out how many you have left:

32 - 24 = 8

So you have 8 muffins left.