You originally have x colored pencils in your pencil box. You share them equally between you and your friend. You add in 3 more colored pencils to your own box after sharing them. This gives you a total of 15 pencils.

. Write an inequality and show all steps for solving for x

1 answer

Let's first write the inequality for the given information:

(x/2) + 3 + (x/2) = 15

Now, let's solve this inequality step by step:

Multiply 2 to both sides of the equation to eliminate the denominators:
2 * [(x/2) + 3 + (x/2)] = 2 * 15
x + 6 + x = 30

Combine like terms:
2x + 6 = 30

Subtract 6 from both sides of the equation:
2x + 6 - 6 = 30 - 6
2x = 24

Divide both sides of the equation by 2:
(2x)/2 = 24/2
x = 12

Therefore, the original number of colored pencils in the pencil box was 12.