Question

belinda has a bag of beads. She uses 1/3 of the meads to make a bracelet and 3/5 of the beads to make a necklace. she uses 36 more beads to make the necklace. How many beads does Belinda use to make the bracelet?

Answer 1

X = the total number of beads Belinda has

$\frac{3}{5}x = \frac{1}{3}x + 36 \\ \frac{3}{5}x - \frac{1}{3}x = 36 \\ \frac{9}{15}x - \frac{5}{15}x = 36 \\ \frac{4}{15}x = 36 \\ x = 135$

So, Belinda has 135 beads in total. The problem says that she uses 1/3 of those beads to make the bracelet. So, find 1/3 of 135.

135 ÷ 3 = 45.

Belinda uses 45 beads to make the bracelet.