Jesse's mother gave him 55 pieces of candy to give to his friends at his birthday party. He gave 4 pieces to each of his friends and still had 3 pieces left. The equation 4x + 3 = 55 can be used to find the number of friends (x) at the party.

Question

How many friends were at Jesse's party?

Answer 1

To solve the equation \( 4x + 3 = 55 \), we need to find the value of \( x \), which represents the number of friends Jesse has.

1. Start by subtracting 3 from both sides of the equation: \[ 4x + 3 - 3 = 55 - 3 \] This simplifies to: \[ 4x = 52 \]

2. Next, divide both sides by 4: \[ \frac{4x}{4} = \frac{52}{4} \] This simplifies to: \[ x = 13 \]

Thus, the number of friends at Jesse's party is \( \boxed{13} \).