Question

One afternoon Mr. and Mrs. Baxter and their 3 children were busy working outside in their garden. Mrs. Baxter was feeling hungry, so she went inside to the kitchen where there was a plate full of cookies. She ate 1/6 of the cookies and then went back to work. Mr. Baxter was feeling hungry, so he went inside and ate 1/5 of the remaining cookies and then went back to work. Next, Anna was feeling hungry, so she went inside and ate 1/4 of the cookies that were left on the plate and then went back to work. Then Tyler was feeling hungry, so he went inside, ate 1/3 of the cookies left on the plate and then went back to work. Finally, little Adam was feeling hungry, and he went inside and ate 1/2 of the remaining cookies, leaving 4 cookies on the plate. How many cookies were on the plate before anyone started feeling hungry?

Answer 1

think of it like this
eating 1/6 leaves 5/6
eating 1/5 of that leaves 4/6
...
so, 1/6 of the cookies was 4.