After getting 5 new rocks, George gave half of his rock collection to Susan. If George gave Susan 36 rocks, which equation could be used to determine how many rocks George started with?

Question

Eiwoh2 · Answer

All right, well this seems to be quite simple. How would you start, by guessing?

Mercury · Answer

old question but will answer so this can be closed
start by letting g = the original number of rocks George has

"after getting 5 new rocks" --> g + 5
"gave his rock collection to susan" --> (g+5)/2. note the parentheses. he halves his collection after getting the five rocks so we have to divide the new total g + 5 by 2, rather than just g

"george gave susan 36 rocks" so (g+5)/2 = 36