Question. John is holding a poker night with his friends and is getting the decks of cards ready before his friends show up. After losing so many cards from various decks, John thinks he needs to count exactly how many cards he has to make sure he has enough full decks for the night. Each deck of cards should hold 52 cards. He finds 3 half-full decks of cards and 3 full decks of cards. As he is arranging them, he realizes that the quality of a lot of the cards is quite poor and decides to throw 34 of the cards in the trash. How many cards does John now have?
Answer. 200
What step-by-step reasoning justifies that answer?
Reasoning: In the full decks, John has a total of 52 cards in a full deck of cards * 3 full decks of cards = 156 cards. A half - full deck of cards contains 52 cards in a full deck of cards / 2 = 26 cards. So from the half - full decks, John has a total of 26 cards * 3 half - full decks = 78 cards. This is a total of 156 cards from full decks + 78 cards from half - full decks = 234 cards. After throwing some in the trash, he now holds a total of 234 cards - 34 trashed cards = 200 cards.