Shalini gave 0.4 of her plums to her brother and 20% to her sister. She kept 16 for herself. How man

Shalini gave 0.4 of her plums to her brother and 20% to her sister. She kept 16 for herself. How many plums did she have first?

Let's convert everything to decimals. 20% = 0.2
So Shalini gave 0.4 + 0.2 = 0.6 of the plums away. Which means she has 1 = 0.6 = 0.4 or 40% left over.

40% represents 16 plums

So our equation is 0.4p = 16 where p is the number of plums to start with

Divide each side by 0.4
p = 40