Let X be the amount the gentleman originally had in his estate.
He leaves half his estate, X/2, to his wife, so there is X/2 remaining.
The son receives $50,000, so there is (X/2) - 50,000 remaining.
The best friend receives half of what is remaining, so the church receives (X/2 - 50,000)/2 = (X/4 - 25,000).
The church receives half of what is remaining, so the school receives (X/4 - 25,000)/2 = (X/8 - 12,500).
He donates $8,000 to the school, so X/8 - 12,500 = 8,000.
Adding 12,500 to both sides, X/8 = 20,500.
Multiplying both sides by 8, the final equation is X = $164,000. Answer: \boxed{164,000}.
An elderly gentleman passes on. He leaves half of his estate to his wife. He leaves his son $50,000. The remainder of the money is divided as follows: He leaves half of the remaining money to his best friend. He then leaves half of what is now remaining to his church. He donates the remaining $8,000 to the local elementary school for research and implementation of Constructivist learning theory in mathematics education. How much money was originally in this gentleman’s estate?
1 answer
1 answer