Question

Rebecca had a piece of ribbon. She used 3/8 of it to tie a parcel. She used 1/5 of the remainder for a bookmark. Rebecca had 24 centimeters of ribbon left. What was the length of ribbon Rebecca had at first?

Answer 1

Assume the length of the ribbon was X
after tieing the parcel , the reminder is X - 3/8 = 5/8 X
Rebecca used 1/5 of the reminder, so the remainder of the remainder is 4/5 of the remainder = (4/5) * (5/8X) = 24 cm
                  20/40X = 24
So X = 48 cm