Teri and Jennifer have 480 holiday cookies altogether. Teri has 1 and 2/3 as many cookies as Jennifer. How many cookies does Jennifer have?

Question

bemoseemo · Answer

is there a list of answers or is it one of those that you have to guess?  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

anonymous · Answer

Nope :(

anonymous · Answer

do you have anyone helping you?

vocaloid · Answer

let's define our variables first

let T = the number of cookies terri has
let J = the number of cookies jennifer has

with me so far?

anonymous · Answer

i am not sure if he is still here, he has not responded to me at all

anonymous · Answer

I'm here sorry

anonymous · Answer

no problem, but i think that the expert left..

anonymous · Answer

my computer doesn't update fast when someone responds all the time

anonymous · Answer

that stinks

vocaloid · Answer

I'm back lol

ok, so they have 480 cookies altogether, then

T + J = 480, with me so far?

anonymous · Answer

yes!

vocaloid · Answer

it also says that terri has 1  2/3 as many cookies as jennifer

to make things easier, I'm going to rewrite 1   2/3 as 5/3, since these two fractions are equal

so T = (5/3)J, with me so far?

anonymous · Answer

yes!

vocaloid · Answer

great, now we can replace "T" with "5/3 J"

so 

T + J = 480

becomes

J + (5/3)J = 480

know where to go from here?

anonymous · Answer

would you do 2j x 5/3= whatever

vocaloid · Answer

where are you getting 2 from

vocaloid · Answer

start by adding 

J + (5/3)J = ?

anonymous · Answer

combining the 2 js

vocaloid · Answer

uh not quite

1 + (5/3) = ?

anonymous · Answer

2.66666667

vocaloid · Answer

as a fraction please

anonymous · Answer

terri and jennifer now have diabetes

anonymous · Answer

2 2/3

vocaloid · Answer

good, we can also write 2  2/3 as 8/3

now we have

J + (5/3)J = (8/3)J

so

(8/3)J = 480

know where to go from here?

anonymous · Answer

@Vocaloid i feel as if you are a genius

anonymous · Answer

no kidding

anonymous · Answer

divide 8/3 on both sides

vocaloid · Answer

yup

so 

480/(8/3) = ?

anonymous · Answer

20?

vocaloid · Answer

hmmm not quite

when we divide by a fraction, we can flip the fraction and multiply

so

480/(8/3) becomes

480*(3/8) which equals...?

anonymous · Answer

180

vocaloid · Answer

ahaha that's nice of you guys to say, I'm far from a genius though

vocaloid · Answer

and yes 180 is the answer, good job~

anonymous · Answer

thank you so much!

vocaloid · Answer

so Jennifer has 180 cookies

anonymous · Answer

wait... if you have time, can you help me?