There are several cookies in the jar. Taking 1 cookie away would leave half as many in the jar as if 5 were added. How many cookies are in the jar?
Thoughts? Step-by-step reasoning:
Let C be the number of cookies. There would be C - 1 cookies. There would be (C + 5) / 2 cookies. C - 1 = (C + 5) / 2. 2(C - 1) = C + 5. 2C - 2 = C + 5. C = 7.
Thus, the answer is 7.