Question

Natalie added 20 pieces of candy to a bowl. Two days later, half of the candy in the bowl is gone. If there are 14 pieces left in the bowl, how many pieces were in the bowl before she added the 20 pieces?

Answer 1

Answer:

8 pieces of candy

Step-by-step explanation:

Take the original amount of candy in the bowl to be $x$.

It says that 20 pieces of candy were added, therefore there are $x+20$ pieces of candy in the bowl.

Half of the candy is gone, therefore $\frac{x+20}{2}$ pieces of candy are left in the bowl.

After half of the candy is gone, there are 14 pieces left, so we can say that $\frac{x+20}{2} =14$

Solve for $x$:

$x+20 = 28$

$x=8$