Question

Jo bought a box of candy last

week. However by the time he
got home, he had eaten 14 of the
candies. As he was working on
homework, he ate 2 of what was
left. There are now 6
chocolates left in the box. How
many chocolates were in the box
to begin with?

Answer 1

22

Explanation:

Work backwards.

There are 6 now.

6+2 = 8

8+14 = 22.

He started with 22 chocolates.

You can redo the problem starting with 22 and seeing if you get it correct.

22-14 = 8

8-2 = 6

Answer 2

Let's work backwards to figure out how many chocolates were in the box to begin with:

We know that there are 6 chocolates left in the box now, and Jo ate 2 of what was left after he got home, so he must have had 8 chocolates left at that point:

6 chocolates + 2 chocolates = 8 chocolates

We also know that Jo ate 14 chocolates before he got home, so we can add that to the 8 chocolates he had left:

8 chocolates + 14 chocolates = 22 chocolates

Therefore, there were 22 chocolates in the box to begin with.