Question

Sally picks seashells by the seashore. She lost 17 of them on her way home. She planned to fill 5 jars with the same amount of seashells in each. How many seashells did Sally pick? You do not have enough information to solve this problem. The number of seashells in each jar is the same as the number portion of her street address, which is a 2-digit number. The first digit is 5. The last digit is 9 less than 3 times the first digit. How many seashells did Sally plan to put in each jar? working backwards, determine how many seashells Sally picked.

Answer 1

This is a very tricky question so if she lost some of them and the number she had left was divisible by 5 then
x-17=(a number divisible by 5)

so working backwards
first digit is 5
street address is 2 digit so last number =-9(3 times 5) or 15-9 or 6
street address is 56

she planned to put 56 seashells in each jar
5 jars so
56 times 5=280 shells total

she lost 17 so
x-17=280
add 17 to both sides
x=297
she had 297 shells origonally