Question

Jordan is making care packages to send to soldiers overseas. He bought a bulk box of mini sunscreen bottles to split evenly among 12 care packages. Each care package got 4 bottles.
Let s represent how many mini sunscreen bottles Jordan had to start. Which equation models the problem?
s
12
=4
4s=12
Solve this equation to find how many mini sunscreen bottles Jordan had to start.
mini sunscreen bottles

Answer 1

To model the problem, we start by understanding that Jordan is splitting the total number of mini sunscreen bottles \( s \) into 12 equal care packages, with each package receiving 4 bottles.

This can be represented mathematically by the equation:

\[
\frac{s}{12} = 4
\]

This equation indicates that the total number of bottles \( s \) divided by the number of care packages (12) equals the number of bottles per care package (4).

To solve for \( s \), we multiply both sides of the equation by 12:

\[
s = 4 \times 12
\]

Calculating the right side gives:

\[
s = 48
\]

Thus, Jordan initially had **48 mini sunscreen bottles** to start.