Josie spent 4/7 of the money in her purse on some books, and the rest of the money on 18 markers. Each marker cost $1.20. How much money was in Josie's purse to begin with?

Mathematics · Middle School · Mon Jan 18 2021

Answered on

Given the statement:

Josie spent 4/7 of the money in her purse on some books, and the rest of the money on 18 markers. Each marker cost $1.20.

Determine how much money was in Josie's purse.

Solution:

To do so, we multiply first 1.20 by 18 to determine the total cost of the marker.

= (18)($1.20)

= $21.6

Now we need to divide 21.6 by 3/7, which is the remaining money of Josie, since she already spent 4/7. Note that when dividing with a fraction, we instead take the reciprocal of the fraction and then multiply it to the whole number. In our case, the reciprocal of 3/7 is 7/3 therefore we multiply 7/3 to 21.6.

= (21.6)(7/3)

= $50.4

Final answer:

Josie's total money is $50.4.