# Lori has 19 more than twice as many customers as when she started selling newspapers. She now has 79 customers. How many did she have when she started?

Dec 6, 2016

Lori had 30 Customers when she started.

#### Explanation:

Let's call the number of Customers Lori had when she started $c$.

We know from the information given in the problem she has 79 Customers and the relationship to the number of Customers she originally had so we can write:

$2 c + 19 = 79$

Now, we can solve for $c$:

$2 c + 19 - 19 = 79 - 19$

$2 c + 0 = 60$

$2 c = 60$

$\frac{2 c}{2} = \frac{60}{2}$

$\frac{\cancel{2} c}{\cancel{2}} = 30$

$c = 30$

Dec 7, 2016

30 customers.

#### Explanation:

First, let's translate this word-speak into math-speak.

Let x represent how many customers she had when she started. So see those words that say "customers as when she started selling newspapers"? That is x. Let's cut it all out and replace it with x.

"Lori has 19 more than twice as many x. She now has 79."

"Twice as many x" just a wordy way to say 2x. So let's rewrite it like that:

"Lori has 19 more than 2x. She now has 79."

"More than" now is really just word-speak for +, so replace more than with +:

"Lori has 19+2x. She now has 79."

"Lori has…she now has" is just saying that 19+2x is the same as 79. 19+2x=79. All those words just boil down to 19+2x=79.

Now, to solve:

Let's put all the variables on one side and the numbers on the other by subtracting 19 from both sides of the equation.

19+2x=79
-19 ..... -19

19-19=0. 79-19=60. So,

2x=60.

Divide both sides by 2 to get x all by itself.

2x=60
÷2 ÷2

2x÷2=x. 60÷2=30. Therefore,
x=30. Lori started out with 30 customers.