Joel bought a bag with (2/9) of his money and a pair of shoes which cost $40 more than the bag. He had (1/3) of his money left.

Question

a) How much did the bag cost?
b) how much did he have at first?

Answer 1

if he had 1/3 left, then he had spent 2/3
So, if the original amount of money was x, then
2/9 x + (2/9 x + 40) = 2/3 x
4/9 x + 40 = 6/9 x
2/9 x = 40
Now you can easily answer the questions.

Answer 2

Yes, I believe that works... for you... but I still don't understand the concept

Please help... thank you very much