Jack has four plates with a flower pattern and 8 plates with a checked pattern. He buys new twice as many polka dotted plates as the number of checked plates he currently has, then smashes one of the flowered plates. How many plates does he have left? Give me reasons, before answering the question
Jack buys 2 * 8 = 16 polka dotted plates. After smashing one, he has 4 - 1 = 3 flower plates left. In total, he has 3 flower plates + 16 polka dotted plates + 8 checked plates = 27 plates. So the final answer is 27.