word problem

[user948123]

How do I solve : Luke, Dan and Nick all had the same amount of money. They decided to put everyone's money in a large paper sack. Unfortunately, $12 fell from the sack and was lost. Now they have 412. How much money did Luke start with?

 

[soroban]

Hello again, user948123!

There must be a typo . . . The answer is not a whole number.

Luke, Dan and Nick all had the same amount of money.
They put their money in a sack, but $12 fell from the sack and was lost.
Now they have $412.
How much money did Luke start with?

The boys had \(\displaystyle \text{THIS}\) amount of money.

They lost $12 and had $412 left.
So \(\displaystyle \text{THIS}\) must have been $424.

\(\displaystyle \text{So each boy had: }\;\$424 \div 3 \:=\:\$141.33\tfrac{1}{3}\)