Question

I cant believe how bad my brother, Reuben, is at growing things. He bought a whole bunch of plants at the nursery the other day. Right away, five died. Then our dog dug up 2/9 of them. Then a rabbit came and ate ½ of what was left. Reuben had only seven plants left. How many did he buy at the nursery

Answer 1

Answer:

68 plants.

Step-by-step explanation:

Let x represent the number of plants that Reuben bought from the nursery.

We have been given that Reuben bought a whole bunch of plants at the nursery the other day. Right away, five died. So number of plant left would be $x-5$.

We are also told that then our dog dug up 2/9 of them. So number of plants left after dug-up would be $\frac{2}{9}(x-5)$.

Further a rabbit came and ate ½ of what was left. So number of plants left would be $\frac{\frac{2}{9}(x-5)}{2}=\frac{2}{9\times 2}(x-5)=\frac{1}{9}(x-5)$.

Since Reuben had only 7 plants left, so we will equate our expression with 7 and solve for x as:

$\frac{1}{9}(x-5)=7$

$9\times \frac{1}{9}(x-5)=7\times 9$

$x-5=63$

$x-5+5=63+5$

$x=68$

Therefore, Reuben bought 68 plants at the nursery.