1370.21 – Dust Mites

Fifty percent more than the number of dust mites living under the king’s bed is 25 percent less than 60 percent more than 10. How many dust mites live under that bed?

Solution

Sixty percent more than $10$ is $16$ . Twenty-five percent (a quarter) less than that is $12$ . Let $x$ be the mystery number. Then fifty percent more than $x$ is $1.5x$ .

$\begin{align*}1.5x &= 12 \\[0.5em]x &= \dfrac{12}{1.5} \\[1em]&= 8\end{align*}$

That’s the answer. You can Google for images of dust mites, but brace yourself!