Ryan spent $15 on a magazine and some notepads. If the magazine cost $5 and each notepad cost $2, then how many notepads did he buy?

Answer
If Ryan spent $15 on a magazine and some notepads, and the notepads each cost $2 and the magazine cost $5 then Ryan bought five notepads.

Explanation
Since we know that the magazine costs five dollars we take 15 in -5 dollars off of that. 15-5 = 10. Now that we have $10 left and we know that the notepads each cost two dollars we divide 10 by 2. 10÷2 = 5. This means that each notepad costs $2 and that he bought five of them. You can check your answer by reversing the equation. If you bought five notepads and they each cost two dollars you spend 10 dollars (5 x 2 = 10).