Half of your baseball card collection got wet and was ruined. You bought 18 cards to replace some that were lost. How many did you begin with if you now have 30?

1. Let x be the original amount of baseball cards,

2. half of x was lost so x divided by 2.

3. you buy 18 cards to replace some that were lost

4. You can find the awnser by subtracting 18 from 30, which is 12.

5. Now lets remember that half of your cards were lost. meaning that 12 is only half of what you started with.

6. 12 times 2 would be 24.

7. The Awnser is 24

8. To check your work, you can say x=24, 24 divided by 2 is 12, and 12 plus 18 is 30.