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

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 at first?

Let p be the number of plums Shalini started with. We have:

• 0.4 given to her brother
• 20% which is 0.2 given away to her sister
• What this means is she kept 1 - (0.4 + 0.2) = 1 - 0.6 = 0.4 for herself

0.4p = 16

Divide each side by 0.4
p = 40