Imagine a question and stream-of-consciousness explanation for which this is the answer: 24
Question: There are 16 people at a dinner party. There are 40 dinner rolls available for them. Half the people eat 1 1/2 rolls each. The other half eat 1/2 a roll each. How many dinner rolls are leftover?
Stream-of-consciousness: Half the people at the party is 16 / 2 = 8 people. 8 people at the party eat 1 1 / 2 rolls each, 8 x 1 1 / 2 = 12 dinner rolls eaten. 8 people at the party eat 1 / 2 a roll each, 8 x 1 / 2 = 4 dinner rolls eaten. Combined, the people at the party ate 12 + 4 = 16 dinner rolls. There were originally 40 dinner rolls - 16 that got eaten = 24 dinner rolls leftover.