There are 42 houses on Main Street. Three less than half the houses are made of brick.

Question

Of the rest of the houses, 12
are painted blue. How many houses on Main Street are painted blue?
You can use reasoning to solve the problem.

Answer 1

Let's determine how many houses on Main Street are made of brick.

1. Calculate half of the houses: There are 42 houses in total, so half would be: \[ \frac{42}{2} = 21 \]

2. Determine how many houses are made of brick: Three less than half of the houses means we subtract 3 from 21: \[ 21 - 3 = 18 \] So, 18 houses are made of brick.

3. Calculate how many houses are not made of brick: To find out how many houses are not made of brick, subtract the number of brick houses from the total number of houses: \[ 42 - 18 = 24 \]

4. Determine how many of the remaining houses are painted blue: It is given that 12 of the remaining houses are painted blue.

So, the number of houses on Main Street that are painted blue is: \[ \boxed{12} \]