My question is: Albert noticed a flock of geese flying together in a V formation in the sky overhead. One half of the geese broke off from the formation, flew toward the earth, and landed in some trees. Then, 4 geese flew up, out of the trees, and joined those already flying in the air to make a new V formation in the sky. If the final number of geese flying in the V formation was 12, how many geese were in the first formation Albert noticed in the sky? Your thoughts:
If the final number of geese was 12, which included the 4 that joined from the trees, then before these 4 joined, there were 12 - 4 = 8 geese in the sky. Since these 8 geese represent the half of geese remaining, then the initial formation contained 8 * 2 = 16 geese. The final answer: 16.