Mary bought a roll of ribbon. After using 5/8 of the ribbon to decorate some packages she had 15ft left how many feet of ribbon did she buy
(3/8)x = 15
Solve for x.
To find out how many feet of ribbon Mary bought, we can use the information given. Let's break it down step by step:
1. Mary used 5/8 of the ribbon to decorate some packages.
2. After using 5/8 of the ribbon, she had 15ft left.
To calculate the amount she used, subtract what is left from what was originally purchased. Since she used 5/8 of the ribbon, the amount left would be 3/8 of the original amount.
Let's represent the amount of ribbon Mary bought as "x".
So, we can set up an equation:
x - (3/8)x = 15
To solve for "x," we can simplify the equation:
(5/8)x = 15
Next, we can solve for "x" by multiplying both sides of the equation by the reciprocal of (5/8):
[(8/5)*(5/8)] * x = 15 * (8/5)
1 * x = (120)/5
x = 120/5
By dividing 120 by 5, we find that:
x = 24
Therefore, Mary initially bought 24 feet of ribbon.