Sam spent half his money on a shirt. At another store he spent half the money he had left. Then he bought a cd for $6.75. He had $2.50 left. How much money did Sam have in the beginning?
0.5x + 0.25x + 6.75 + 2.5 = x
0.75x + 9.25 = x
9.25 = x - 0.75x
9.25 = 0.25x
9.25 / 0.25 = x
37 = x
What the answer
To find out how much money Sam had in the beginning, we can work backwards using the given information.
Let's start with the amount of money Sam had left after buying the CD, which is $2.50.
Before buying the CD, Sam spent half of the money he had left at the second store. So, the amount of money Sam had left before buying the CD can be calculated as follows:
Amount before CD = $2.50 + $6.75
Now, let's figure out the amount of money Sam had left before visiting the second store. Sam spent half of the money he had left on a shirt, so the equation becomes:
Amount before second store = (Amount before CD) * 2
Finally, we can calculate the initial amount of money Sam had by using the equation:
Initial amount = (Amount before second store) * 2
Let's plug in the values and solve the equations step by step:
Amount before CD = $2.50 + $6.75 = $9.25
Amount before second store = $9.25 * 2 = $18.50
Initial amount = $18.50 * 2 = $37.00
Therefore, Sam had $37.00 in the beginning.