A Carpenter several boards of equaling he could 3/5 of each board after cutting the boards the Carpenter notices that he has enough pieces left over to make up the same length as four of the original boards how many boards did the Carpenter start with

Answer 1

4 of the original boards have a summed length of 20 units. 5 x 4 = 20.
Since 2/5 is left from each board, you simply add them until the 2's add to 20.

So, 2 x 10 = 20. Hence, there are 10 2/5 boards.

That's just 4 of the boards that the 2/5 make up, but that should also mean that there are 10 3/5 boards as well.

30/5 + 20/5 = 50/5
Reduction = 10

The carpenter started with 10 5/5 boards.