Susan read 17 pages today. That is 8 pages fewer than 13

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of the pages she read yesterday. How many pages did she read yesterday?

1 answer

Let \( x \) be the number of pages Susan read yesterday. According to the problem, she read 17 pages today, which is 8 pages fewer than \( \frac{13}{3} \) of the pages she read yesterday. We can express this relationship with the following equation:

\[ 17 = \frac{13}{3}x - 8 \]

To solve for \( x \), we start by isolating \( \frac{13}{3}x \):

\[ 17 + 8 = \frac{13}{3}x \]

\[ 25 = \frac{13}{3}x \]

Next, we will multiply both sides by \( \frac{3}{13} \) to solve for \( x \):

\[ x = 25 \times \frac{3}{13} \]

Calculating the right side:

\[ x = \frac{75}{13} \]

Performing the division gives:

\[ 75 \div 13 \approx 5.7692 \]

That means Susan read approximately \( 5.77 \) pages yesterday, but let's compute \( x \) in a more manageable way. For exact simplification (as a fraction):

\[ x = \frac{75}{13} \approx 5.77 \]

Now let’s convert \( \frac{75}{13} \) back to an approximate decimal:

\[ \frac{75}{13} \approx 5.769 \]

So, in summary, Susan read approximately \( 5.77 \) pages yesterday, or:

\[ \text{Susan read } \frac{75}{13} \text{ pages yesterday.} \]

If we need a whole number (integer), we can approximate it as 6 pages. However, without rounding for full pages, the exact value remains \( \frac{75}{13} \) pages.