Maria bought seven boxes. A week later half of all her boxes were destroyed in a fire. There are now only 22 boxes left. With how many did she start?
To determine how many boxes Maria started with, we can work backward from the information given.
We know that after the fire, Maria had 22 boxes left. This represents half of her original number of boxes. So, we can double the remaining boxes to find the original number.
22 boxes x 2 = 44 boxes
Therefore, Maria started with 44 boxes.
Maria's initial number of boxes is represented by x.
(x+7)/2 = 22
x+7 = 44
x = 37
Maria had 37 boxes initially.