Question

Francois baked just enough cookies to fill all the orders at his bakery. While the cookies were cooling, a kitchen assistant knocked over a cooling rack and spilled 12% of the cookies onto the floor. Francois had to bake 36 more cookies to replace them.
How many cookies were ordered in total?

Answer 1

We see that 12% of the cookies is 36, so we write an equation!  Call the number of cookies x.

12x/100=36

Multiplying by 100/12, we see that:

x=300

Thus, 300 cookies were ordered.