I need step-by-step help. I don't understand this at all. My homework problem is: Two friends cut a large candy bar into equal pieces. Harriet ate 1/4 of the pieces. Nisha ate 1/2 of the remaining pieces. Six pieces were left over. How many pieces was the candy bar originally divided into?

Question

All I figured out to do was draw a large rectangle for the candy bar.

Answer 1

Harriet ate 1/4, leaving 3/4 uneaten.

Nisha ate 1/2 of the 3/4, or 3/8, leaving 3/8 uneaten.

6 pieces was 3/8, so the whole bar was

6 divided by 3/8, or 6 * 8/3 = 48/3 = 16 pieces.

Check
Harriet ate 1/4, or 4 pieces, leaving 12.
Nisha ate 1/2 of those, leaving 6.
Works for me.

On you rectangle, divide it into 4ths. Shade one of those.

The remaining part is divided into halves, so shade one of those.

That leaves 3 strips left, but you want 6 pieces, so each strip has to be divided in two, so 6 blocks are left.

If you divide all of the shaded parts the same way, you will find that there are 16 boxes altogether.