Jose has a comic book collection that he keeps among 5 shelves with an equal number on each shelf. His father adds 20 comic books to the bottom shelf, so the shelf now has 125 books. How many total books are in his collection? Use algebra to solve the equation. The answer is not 85!!!

Answer 1

Let's say each shelf initially had x comic books.
After 20 comic books were added to the bottom shelf, it had x + 20 books.
Since each shelf originally had an equal number of books, and there are 5 shelves, the total number of books is 5x.
If we add 20 to the bottom shelf, the total number of books is 5x + 20.
We are told that the bottom shelf now has 125 books, so we can write the equation:
5x + 20 = 125
Subtracting 20 from both sides, we get:
5x = 105
Dividing both sides by 5, we get:
x = 21
So each shelf initially had 21 comic books, and the total number of books in Jose's collection is 5x, or 5*21 = <<5*21=105>>105. Answer: \boxed{105}.