Question

Ashley won 40 lollipops playing hoops at her school's game night. Later, she gave two to each of her friends. She only has 4 remaining. How many friends does she have?

Answer 1

Ashley has a lot of friends she gave lollipops too, `18` friends to be exact.

Explanation:

The formula for this problem can be written as:

`40 - 2f = 4` Where `40` is the number of lollipops Ashley originally had; `f` is the number of friends Ashley gave `2` lollipops each to and `4` is the number of lollipops remaining.

Solving for `f` while keeping the equation balanced gives the solution:

`40 - 2f - 40 = 4 - 40`

`0 - 2f = -36`

`-2f = -36`

`(-2f)/-2 = (-36)/-2`

`1f = 18`

`f = 18`